


A Twist in Their Story

by orphan_account



Series: Maybe this time..... [1]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: DRAMA and lots and lots of drama!, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Love Triangles, M/M, Missing, Multi, Promises, Psychology, Unexpected event, emotionally stressed, prove of love, this is not an anti-noiao fic, unexplained feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-03-30 18:10:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 33,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3946603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noiz and Aoba are living peacefully in Germany. Until one day Aoba decided to go back to Midorijima to visit his grandmother and took an unexpected turn. Few months passed by and Aoba didn’t return, worried, Noiz decided to go to Midorijima as quickly as possible. There he saw his greatest fear coming to life, Aoba was with someone else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reminisce

Title: A Twist in Their Story

Summary: Noiz and Aoba are living peacefully in Germany. Until one day Aoba decided to go back to Midorijima to visit his grandmother and took an unexpected turn. Few months passed by and Aoba didn’t return, worried, Noiz decided to go to Midorijima as quickly as possible. There he saw his greatest fear coming to life, Aoba was with someone else.

Pairing: Noiz X Aoba (originally), Koujaku X Aoba (as the story progresses)

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters, they belong to N+C. I only own this fanfic.

A/N: sorry if I have some wrong information, grammar, spelling, etc please correct me if I’m wrong and also I don’t know if this fic has been done before. 

Chapter One: “Reminisce” Noiz’s POV  
\--------  
In Germany……

“P! P! it’s almost time for work! P! wake up Noiz! Wake up! “ Usagimodoki exclaimed as it (sorry idk if Noiz’s allmate is a girl or boy) try to wake me up.

“Ugh…n….nn….I’m up! I’m up!” I responded as I grab hold of it and try to silence it like an alarm clock.

“Come on Noiz! P! Get dressed! Get dress!” it continued to exclaimed as it hopped around the closet area.

“Yeah… yeah” I told it and got up from bed. 

As I was going to stand up, I touched the other side of the bed…..

“It’s pretty cold” I murmured and brushed of that side.

“What’s wrong Noiz?” a familiar deep sound voice suddenly asked me.

I turned around and saw that it was Ren.

“Oh nothing, it’s just that I miss Aoba.” I told him.

“Aoba has only been gone for a few days, I’m sure that he’ll get back here sooner.” Ren replied.

“Yeah… I know…..” I said and I fixed my glance on the old model allmate. “You know, I really can’t believe that Aoba left you here.”

“Yes, we have the same reaction but it can’t be helped since he got caught by the moment.” Ren answered and looked at me.

I let out a small laugh as a sign that I agree with him. Yes, it was one of those moments that you’re in so much hurry that you tend to forget some important things. If I remember   
correctly, Aoba was supposed to go back to Midorijima to visit his grandmother every three months and when he was picking out a flight to go back, he accidentally pressed one of those morning flights instead. I told him that it was just ok to cancel the flight and just pick another one. But he told me that he won’t, that since the flight was already booked and it was already paid for. I also remember him saying these words:

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll manage.” 

Then he smiled at me with a cute face, I couldn’t help it but kissed him on the cheek.

He moved back a little bit, “wo…woah! What did you do that for?” he asked as he tried to cover his cheek while blushing.

I chuckled and said, “It’s your fault you know”

“wh..What?! Why is that?”

“It’s because you’re so damn cute”

His face became redder and he smacked me in the head.

“ ….stupid erogaki….” He told me and turned away as a sign of embarrassment.

I looked at him and hugged him tightly. “Don’t worry I’ll help you get up for your flight” I whispered to his ears and kissed him again. This time he didn’t fight back and hugged me   
back.

On the day of his departure, it was a pretty sunny day, I remember because the last smile I saw before he left was bright as the sun at that time.

“Aoba… wake up or you’re not gonna be able to make it on time.” Ren said as he try to wake Aoba by jumping up and down on his stomach. 

“Is he awake?” I asked as I approach the bed.

“No” Ren answered. “It is very hard for him to wake up early in the morning seeing that he is not a morning person.” He added.

“I agree, but he did say that he’ll manage.” I replied. “and that’s what I like about him. He tries his best despite knowing that he can’t do it. it’s so cute.”

“You know Noiz, if Aoba hears you talking about him like that, he’s going to get mad at you.” Ren pointed out as he looked at me as if I made some mistake.

“I know and I don’t mind. It makes him look cuter when he’s angry at me.” I responded with a small chuckle and sat down beside Aoba.

“…..” Ren left and unimpressed impression on his face as he walk around the bed near Aoba.

I put my hands on his forehead and…..

“Ah!!!!!!” a loud shriek came out.

Ren and I were taken back to the loud noise as Aoba woke up with a panic expression on his face.

“ohhh…shit! I totally oversleep. I seriously need to get going now.” Aoba said as he went to the bathroom and gather his essentials and put it on his bag.

“You know, you can just cancel that flight and get another one later. I can just pay for it.” I suggested.

“No, I can’t.” he rejected as he continues to fix himself in the mirror.

“Why?” I asked.

“That’s because you’ve done so much for me already and I don’t want to be a burden to you.” He told me and looked into my eyes and looked back at the mirror again. “I can’t always rely on you. And this is the first time I bought a ticket with my own money. So I can’t waste that.”

This again….. whenever we have a talk about me wanting to spoil him, he would always say those words:

“I don’t want to be a burden.”

“I don’t want to bother you.”

“You’ve done enough for me.”

“I don’t deserve to be treated like this.”

But then you did do things for me that can’t be paid off so easily…

You gave me hope when there was none….

You’ve opened my eyes about the world…

You showed me that I don’t need to be alone in the world….

You’ve taught me to be kind, understanding, forgiving and gentle….

You let me become a part of the world….

You taught me how to love and cherish people…..

You gave me a chance to prove my love for you….

Even though I wasn’t perfect…..

You made me happy for it

….. and you became my whole world

***

“Ah! Anyway. I’ll be going now. So don’t worry I’ll try to go back as much as possible and I’ll text you when the plane arrives at Midorijima”. Aoba said as he was at the front door   
of their apartment.

Before leaving, he suddenly jumped in front of my face and kissed my lips.

“That’s payback from last night.” He said and formed a huge smile in his face.

His smile was so bright and lively that time, I feel that it was like the sun that always makes my day sunny and beautiful.

“Be careful ok?” I warned him.

“I will, bye!” me replied and left.

“Bye!” the three of us saw him left off.

“P! Take care! Take care!” Usagimodoki exclaimed as it jumped around my shoulders.

“Don’t sleep too much on the plane ok?” I shouted, I think I even heard him saying “Shut up!” before a sound of taxi appeared.

“…….”

“Something’s not right….” I pointed out and thought.

“What’s wrong Noiz? Did you forget an important appointment today?” Ren asked as he wagged his tail looking up at me.

“It’s not that…..I think Aoba forgot something important.” I pointed out again and thought even harder. I looked at Usagimodoki and then on Ren. I seriously think that something’s off. Then it hit me!

“!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I exclaimed and pointed on Ren. “Aoba forgot to bring you!”

“Yes, it appear so.” Ren said calmly.

“How can you be so calm about it? He usually doesn’t even let you walk more than 5 meters away!” I told him.

“yes, that might be correct but when about woke up, it seems that he his stress level were high and that he was still not aware of what’s happening.”

“So you’re telling me that he was half-asleep the whole time?!”

“Not exactly, he pretty much got the situation when he fully woke up.”

“Then why didn’t you just jumped into his back?

“That’s mainly because there was no room left for me. I couldn’t just say Aoba, you forgot about me. Remember his stress level were rising so I don’t want to add the burden and besides he’s been str…...” before Ren could even continue to talk, he realized something and stopped talking. I notice that Ren is worried about Aoba so I picked him up.

“I see, you’re such a good dog.” I complimented the furry allmate and patted its head. Ren wagged his tail as a sign of thank you. “Anyway, I’ll be leaving now so take care of the house you two!”

“Roger!” both of them responded in unison.  
***

*beep* *beep*

“ugh…ugh…h…” I groaned as I turned off the alarm clock. Honestly, I don’t have the energy to get up anymore, when was the last time that I ever feel to be alive? How long has it been since I last saw Aoba? I really miss him… “Where are you Aoba?” I muttered as I look at the side of the bed where Aoba usually sleeps.

“I really can’t live without you…. I miss you…..”

-end of chapter 1-

Note: what do you guys think? Comments are always welcome and if you have tips on how to write better, I would gladly accept it^^. This is my first time making a fic so please go easy on me 

Additional:

On the Airport…..

Flight Attendant: Good Morning Sir, may I see you ticket for validation?

Aoba let out his coil and show it to the flight attendant.

Flight Attendant: thank you sir, your ticket has now been validated. Please proceed to your assigned seat.

Aoba: phew! That was a close one. Huh, Ren?

Aoba noticed that he did have his fluffy lump of fur in his bag…..

Aoba: ohh… it seems that I forgot Ren…. What the hell should I do? Should I call Noiz and ask if he can bring Ren here or should I just go back and pick myself? Either way I’m sure that I’ll just bother other people. It’s fine, I’ll be gone for just three days, I’m sure that they’ll be fine and that…. I’ll be fine without Ren.


	2. Worries and Fears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz realizes his worries and fears as to why Aoba would leave him. After going back to Midorijima, he saw his greatest fear coming to live. that Aoba was happy with someone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the support, comments and kudos for the first chapter! really appreciate it ^^

Chapter Two: “Worries and Fears” 

Aoba’s POV

“I don’t know where everything went wrong but….” When I thought about this, I immediately stop. My body, my head, it hurts. Everything throbbing, I never felt this kind of pain before…. I don’t want this kind of pain, it’s suffocating. Please, Please! Remove this pain away from me! 

I wonder what I did to deserve this. I just wanted to…..

“Aoba!” someone calls me…. How should I say this but his voice is so warm and comforting.

As my eyes are closing, I saw a shadow that was heading towards me.

“!” I exclaimed. I gasped for air immediately. “Was that just a bad dream?” I wonder as I touch my forehead.

“Aoba, are you ok?” a familiar voice asked.

“Yes, I just had a little nightmare that’s all.” I told him so that he wouldn’t be worried.

“Listen, Aoba. I know that you’ve been through a tough time but please if you feel something’s wrong don’t be afraid to tell me ok?” the man told me with a worried face as he put his hand around my face.

It’s so warm, I never felt this warmth before. I rubbed my face against his hand as a ‘yes’ to his worries.

“Good, now let’s go Tae-san might get angry at us for staying too long.” He pointed out.

“Yes, Koujaku!” I responded and got up from bed. And headed downstairs towards the dining area.  
\-----  
Noiz’s POV

In Germany, specifically in their family company.

“Are you done with all your work, nii-san?” Theo asked me as I sighed and stacked the sheets of paper together. 

“Yeah, I finish everything that needs to be done for a month.” I replied nonchalantly and lean back on my chair.

“Are you really sure about this? You seem to be stressed.” Theo seemed to be worried.

“Yes, I am. I did so much work so that I could at least have a long vacation.” I told him so that he wouldn’t be worried.

“…..” Theo was left silent. “But is it really what you want? I know that you want to leave so that you can go and look for Aoba-san.”

“Urk! How did you know that?!” I exclaimed.

“Your allmate did.”

“urgh… that stupid Midori.” I was surprised that my allmate told Theo and more importantly, how the hell did they became close?

“Don’t worry! I will try my best to cover for you while you’re gone.”

“Theo….”

“I know that nii-san is not happy when Aoba-san’s not around and I really want to see nii-san smiling again!”

“Pfff….” I remarked as I brushed his hair. “You’re really a good lil bro you know.”

“hehehe…. Noiz-niisan stop that!” Theo said jokingly.

“You little….!” 

Theo left the room giggling and I was supposed to chase him but I realize that he was just trying to cheer me up. So I left a little smirk on my face and continue to work.

A little while later, when I returned to our apartment.

“I’m home….” I sighed.

“P! Welcome back Noiz! Welcome back! P!” Usagimodoki greeted as it approached me.

“Welcome back Noiz.” Ren also greeted me. “It seems that everything is going well?”

“Yes, I suppose.” I replied and opened up my coil. I instantly bought a ticket to Midorijima that will leave first thing in the morning. Then I started to call Aoba again….

“You know that it’s hopeless.”

“I know but if there were miracles he would respond. I’m just hoping.” Then I turned off my coil, sat down and looked at Ren. “When was it when you lost connection to Aoba’s  
coil?”

“It was around four months ago, I’ve tried rebooting and rerouting my connections just in case I could get hold of his coil but it failed every time.” Ren answered and lower his ears.

I pet him and look at the window, “don’t worry we’ll find Aoba first thing in the morning.”

It’s already been four months since I last saw Aoba and the last text I received from him were:

“I’ve arrived at Midorijima, I’m going to granny right now.”

But after that… A few minutes later, Ren announced that he couldn’t connect with Aoba’s coil. It made me worried but I… I couldn’t just leave work. On my way home, I tried to call  
and text Aoba over and over again but he didn’t respond to any of it. And that’s when I started to track the last place where the connection between Ren and his coil disappeared. I don’t find anything weird about it since it was the route where reaching his Grandmother’s place the fastest.

I tried to text his old best friend, the old man but I realize that I didn’t have his email.

Even so I didn’t stop researching for clue where he could be. But because of work I couldn’t focus on my research, that’s why I decided to work all the things that needed to be done so that I could have a long vacation and use the time to look for him. 

But then…. There’s some place in my heart, deep down inside saying….

Maybe he finds you to be so lenient that he wants to run away from you…..

I keep thinking that but I would always see Aoba saying, “Idiot! Why would I leave you? Isn’t my love for you enough? Or don’t you trust that our relationship will last?” 

So I shook off that feeling of being rejected and try to do my best to get up every morning and go to work. Every day I told myself that I’m doing this for his sake.

Early in the morning, I immediately took my belongings and headed to the airport. I turned Usagimodoki and Ren off because it is a part of the airline safety policy.

It was an eight hour flight but I couldn’t sleep, all I could ever think off is what I will do when I reached Midorijima.

And so we’ve arrived….

“Finally” I said and walked immediately outside the airport.

“Noiz, aren’t you going to check-in in a hotel?” Ren asked.

“That could wait. Right now I need to look for Aoba.” I responded. “Could you locate the muscle-headed old man for me?”

“Koujaku? Why? Wouldn’t it be best to ask Tae first?”

“I don’t want to bother her and if there’s a possibility that she might not know where Aoba is. And as far as I remember she hate coils.”

“That is true. Ah! I’ve located Koujaku and he’s not that far!”

“Really? Give me the shortest route to use.”

As Ren gives me the instructions, I run fast, very fast. I don’t think I’ve remembered running this fast before. And there I saw him, an old looking guy wearing a bright red kimono.

“Hey, Kou-“ the moment I let my voice. I notice someone was walking beside the old man.

My eyes widen knowing who the person. I couldn’t believe it! How is this happening? It was Aoba and he’s with Koujaku, both of them are holding hands and smiling at each other. 

It is not your average walk with your best friend and I can tell…..

Whenever Theo would visit us in our apartment, he and Aoba would always be friendly with each other but then I wouldn’t get jealous over it simply because, the way he smiles at other people is different when I’m with him and now…. The way he smiles at that guy is the same as when he’s with me. What’s going on? Before I could think everything through, I approach them and…….

*smack* I punched Koujaku so hard that he hit himself on the ground.

“Argh!” Koujaku groaned.

“Koujaku! Are you alright?” Aoba exclaimed. “?”

Then I pulled Aoba away from him.

“Le..let go of me!” Aoba shouted as he tries to get away from my hold.

“I don’t know what you were doing with that guy but I want an explanation.” I told him and tighten my grip as we walk away from Koujaku.

I can hear Aoba grunting as he tries to escape from me. “Explain what?” he asked and manages to escape from me. “Who do you think you are anyway? I don’t even know you.”

My chest aches when he said those words. It was as if my whole world broke right in front of my very eyes. 

Is this a joke? Is this a nightmare? I don’t like this! Please tell me that this isn’t real! 

I wanted to talk to him but I was too speechless to say anything. A lot of things are going in my mind right now like, what is going on here? Is he trying to pretend that he doesn’t know me? Is he joking? Or is he playing dumb?

“Noiz… did you?....” Ren approached me but as soon as he started to talk Aoba instantly recognizes him.

“Ren!” Aoba called out and took Ren into his arms. “I was so worried where you were!” 

Aoba then started to cuddle Ren in his arms and looked at me. 

“Nee, Ren do you know that guy?” he asked as he examines me with his stare.

“Aoba, don’t you remember? He’s Noiz, your-“before Ren could finish, Koujaku patted his head.

“It’s been a while huh Ren?” he said as he wipe the area where I punched him. “I’m sure that you and Aoba has a lot of stuff to talk about why don’t you guys go back ahead? Beni can fill in for you.” He added as he put Beni in Ren’s head.

“Are you sure that you’ll be ok?” Aoba asked worriedly. “He punched you pretty bad.”

“hehe don’t worry I’ll manage.” Koujaku responded as he pat Aoba’s head. That alone could want me to punch him again but I stopped myself from doing it knowing that Aoba might think badly of me.

“Ok then, take care ok?” Aoba said as he left with Ren and Beni.

“Yeah bye!” Koujaku replied and see them off. He was happily waving good bye to them but when they were gone his face became serious. “Geez, seriously. Could you get any more pathetic than this?”

Then he started to walk on the opposite side.

“Hey where the hell are you going?” I shouted.

“You want to know what happened to Aoba right?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Then we’re going to Tae-san. I’m sure she wants to talk to you.”

I kept silent and decided to follow him. I want to know what happened to Aoba four months ago, why he forgot about me and more importantly why is he with this kind of guy.

I want to know everything about you. What made you change these past few months?

Aoba please tell me….. what do you really feel about me.

-End of chapter 2-


	3. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz learns the truth Aoba's action on the previous chapter not only that but it seems that Koujaku learns the truth about Tae-san opinion on Noiz's and Aoba's relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the support, comments and kudos! and don't worry this is not an anti-Noiao fanfic!

Chapter 3: “Truth”

Koujaku’s POV

It was around the evening when I got off from work, I was planning to visit a friend (Mizuki) in the hospital when I received a text from Aoba saying that he’s here in Midorijima and wanted to hang out and off course I agree. We agreed to meet up at Tae-san’s place. Thinking that he might be there already, I immediately set off to Tae-san’s place. 

Actually I was surprise when I reach Tae-san’s place. Aoba was not yet there and that Tae-san told me that he was just probably running late but I knew that she was worried about him knowing that the last time he messaged her were around an hour ago. So we decided to wait. We waited and waited until it was almost midnight…..

I tried calling and texting him several times through his coil, while we waited for him but I couldn’t connect through him and that’s when I know that something was wrong.

Early in the morning, the next day. I told my members to help me look for clues as to where Aoba could be. We looked around to the different parts of the town and asked a lot of people if they’ve seen him. But there was no luck, I became very anxious about it until one of my members told me that they’ve found where Aoba is and that the authorities had contacted Tae-san about.

So I hurriedly went to the hospital and saw him there. He was just lying on the bed, sleeping. But I can immediately tell that he was having a hard time breathing, not only that but it seems that he doesn’t feel comfortable as well.

I was surprised as to see his current condition, he was covered with bandages and plasters all around his body. His skin changed colors due to the bruises he had and what really struck me the most was the big bandage that almost covered his entire face.

According to witnesses, he was just passing by (probably on his way to Tae-san’s place) when he saw what seemed to be robber robbing a young couple (probably teenagers), he tried to help the couple by focusing the attention of the robber unto him. The witnesses say that he handled himself pretty well and could easily beat the robber.

And that’s when things turn out to be bad, the one that looked like a robber was actually from a rib team and called for back-up. There were around five of them according to the witnesses and they started to beat him up mercilessly. Knowing the state of their rescuer, the young couple called the police, even though they called the police, it would still take time for them to reach the location so they searched for a police-officer that was near the area and by the time they got there…. 

Well I guess you know what happened next.

The doctors had a hard time identifying him because of the injuries, that’s why we weren’t able to find him until the next day. By the time he regained consciousness, they asked him for his name and that’s where they contacted Tae-san.

The doctors and police explained everything to Tae-san what had happened to his grandson. She agreed to what the doctor recommended for Aoba to recover faster. So they took examinations and surgery just to be sure that he can recover smoothly. 

According to the doctors Aoba didn’t break any of his limbs but he got 3 of his ribs broken, he got bruises and cuts everywhere especially in his stomach area, which is why he still has a hard time eating, breathing and moving. And lastly, an injury into the head. 

According to the police, the people that they caught fighting Aoba used crowbars and knives to beat him. It was just a nick of time when the police arrived or else it would have been worse. But unfortunately one or two of them manages to escape…..

“So when’s the part you’re going to tell why he’s staying with you or not contacting me when he was hospitalized?” that snout nose bean sprout interrupted. It was as if he was not interested to the whole story that just told and is extremely nonchalant on what Aoba has been through. I see him change his expression when I talked he was just calm. What the heck is he thinking? Doesn’t he even know what Aoba’s been through all the time?

“I was just getting into that….” I remarked and continue my story.

He was sedated for a few days and underwent several surgeries that time. By the time everything was finish, he seemed to be alright, he didn’t show any sign of fear or trauma. It was as if he doesn’t remember what had happened to him and that’s where we found out that….

“Aoba, do you know why you’re in the hospital?” I asked him.

“hmmm… I don’t remember much but it’s probably because of my job?” he answered.

“And what would your job be?” Tae-san added.

“In Heibon, I probably got the address wrong and went to a dangerous place insted.”

“….” Both I and Tae-san couldn’t believe what we heard. I mean he stopped working there just so that he could be with you. So I thought of something.

“Say Aoba, do you have any idea what today is?” I asked.

“Today? I think it’s (mentions the year and month) but I guess I could be wrong since I’ve been in the hospital for a while.” He answered as he laugh.

“Umm… don’t know how to say this…. But… that was a year and a half ago.” I corrected him.

“What?! You’re joking right?” 

“I’m afraid it’s not a joke Aoba.” Tae-san said.

We told him about what had happened and how he got from here. He was first skeptical about it but it seems that he was able to understand his situation.

Anyway, it took him a total of three months and a half to be discharged in the hospital. He still had some injuries left in him but it seems that they’re small enough to be taken  
care of at home. And of course, Tae-san was worried if his grandson were to collapse or to lose balance suddenly, and since she couldn’t carry him anymore, she asked me if I could take care of Aoba. Plus the rib team that attacked him might go and look for revenge. So it would have been the best if he was with me.

“But then why didn’t you contact me all this time? I could have took care of him and if its safety you want no one would hurt him if he was with me.” Noiz said and begins to sulk. In which to my surprise is very rare.

“ummm…. That would be…” just as I was about to answer. Tae-san lowered her cup of tea and….

“We couldn’t contact you ok?!” she exclaimed and took a sip of her tea.

“But I—“just as he was about to explain himself. But he noticed that Tae-san was shaking, I know what she feels. She doesn’t want to relieve that moment more than I do. So I guess Noiz noticed that as well and kept silent. 

Actually all of as became silent and it became very awkward.

“And if you’re asking about why Aoba didn’t contact you. It’s because his coil got stolen.” Tae-san started to talk to break off the awkward silence.

“Stolen?!” he exclaimed.

“Not only his coil but everything else as well. By the time the police came to his rescue, he only got his clothes left. I was actually worried thinking that those guys might have stolen Ren as well. But I guess that wasn’t the case.” I added.

“That would explain a lot actually.” Noiz stated as he sighed. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that you two are acting like lovers.”

I stood up took hold of his collar and said,“Screw you! Who do you think took care of him all this months?! And besides he doesn-“ woah! I just my composure there. I seat back down again and took heavy breathes and calmed down. “Listen here kid, it’s not like we’re going out or anything. He’s just staying at my place until the coast is clear and if you have problems with that you can always try to convince him to go back with you. If you can.” I snared at that punk.

“You think that this is funny?!” he exclaimed and slammed his hand on the table.

Oops it seems that I broke a fuse here. 

“You wouldn’t know how it feels to be forgotten all of a sudden.” Noiz said as he stood up and left the place.

“Actually I do.” I responded to him.

The pain I feel is far worse than what you feel right now. You don’t how it was like… to be forgotten by your best friend. Not only that but I love him more than that. And I can’t stand the he is being treated by your family. No, I will never let that happened again.

I will protect Aoba this time.  
***

Noiz POV

“Dammit!“ I cursed as I kicked a trash can nearby.

“P! Cheer up Noiz! Cheer up!” Usagimodoki popped up and bounced around.

“I could I cheer up about this? Aoba has forgotten me!” I exclaimed as paused and looked at the ground. “this is so unfair. Why of all the things that he could forget….why does he have to forget the time that we spent together?”

While I process what I’ve learn today, I couldn’t help but cry about it.

Aoba… the only person that I love, has forgotten about me. I couldn’t help but blame myself for this situation. 

If only I was with him all the time…. 

Then I could have saved him….

If only…..

A little while later (Koujaku’s POV)

“I’m surprise that you didn’t told him about what caused the memory loss of Aoba.” Tae-san said as she gives me a basket of food.

“Nah, I don’t think he needs to know.” I replied as I accepted the basket. “Besides I’m sure that Aoba doesn’t want him to know either.”

“That kid (refers to Aoba) doesn’t really want to bother people doesn’t he?”

“Yeah…. That’s why he’s such a good kid. But still…. It was a shock to me how much he had suffered.”

“You mean the accident?”

“No, before that.”

“I see. So you know about it as well?”

“Of course, I’m his best friend after all.”

“I think it would be best to let Noiz assume that he lost his memory because of the accident. I don’t want that kid to push it too much or else it could strain your relationship.”

“You say that but in reality you want them to break up, right?”

“A person has their reason but I think it’s too much for me to see my grandson suffering like that. That’s why I think it would be the best.”

“And do you think Aoba will be happy about it?”

“He seems happy now doesn’t he?”

“Yeah I guess so.” I agreed and packed my stuff. “I’ll be leaving now Tae-san! And I’ll make sure that Aoba will eat the food you brought!”

“Make sure not to eat all of it!” Tae-san shouted.

I laughed as I went outside.

When I was going back to my apartment. I remember the talk I had with Tae-san.

(flash back)

We were outside of Aoba’s room that time, we were shock to know that he lost his memories.

“Could it be that the injury on his head caused this?” I suggested.

“Don’t be stupid! Of course not! That injury was too small to cause an amnesia.” Tae-san corrected.

“Then what could have been the cause?” I asked.

“it could have been a repressed memory.” She answered.

“a repressed memory?”

“let’s not talk about this now. I’ll explain it soon.”

“o…ok..”

(end of flash back)

“Repressed Memory huh?” I begin to wonder.

“Hey Beni do you what it means?” I asked my little allmate.

“Represses Memory. According to a famous psychologist it is the way emotionally painful events could be blocked out of conscious awareness so that their painful effects would not have to be experienced.” Beni explained.

“Woah there! That’s too much!” I joked.

“Well you asked for it, I just answered you. So don’t complain!” Beni said.

*laughs* “I know and thanks” I replied and looked at the night sky.

Emotionally painful events huh? I wonder did those events really caused him so much pain?

If so. I don’t want to see him crying anymore.

I can't stand to see you cry....

Aoba… please let me protect you.  
-End of Chapter 3-


	4. Second Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz mets Aoba and as his second chance to redeem himself, he vowed to make Aoba fall in love with him all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for the encouraging words of support, kudos and comments! really appreciate it :3

Chapter 4: “Second Chance”

Noiz’ POV

It was only my second day after arriving from Midorijima but it felt like I’ve been staying for a week now. I don’t want to get up nor to stay awake. I just want to rest and think that everything that had happened is just a dream. I don’t like where this is going at all.

Why of all people Aoba would forget about me?

Just as I was planning to get back to sleep, I felt a hard block jumping in my face.

“P! Noiz wake up! Wake up!” Usagimodoki exclaimed.

“Let me rest! It’s my day off!” I replied and throw it away.

“P! Noiz is being mean! Mean!” Usagimodoki shouted as if it was about to cry.

“Noiz! Don’t be mean to Midori!” Aoba said.

When I turn around to see if it was really Aoba, I just realize that it was just a hallucination.

Of course, Aoba won’t be here.

And that’s went I decided to stand up and go to a convenience store.

“P! What are you buying? What are you buying?!” Usagimodoki asked eagerly.

“Nothing just some important things like pizza and pasta.” I told it as I head towards the food section.

Just as I was heading to it, I saw someone having a hard time reaching the top shelf. So I help them out.

“than…” when the person turn around to thank me. I realize that it was Aoba. “…..Thanks….”

“…..no problem.” I replied and the two of us just looked blankly at each other.

After we bought our own stuff. We decided to talk things over. Most especially what I did to Koujaku yesterday.

“umm…I’m actually not sure what we should talk about.” He nervously started the conversation. “I mean Koujaku told me that we were friends and that I visited you in Germany to  
see how you were doing. I can’t believe that I even left Ren. I’m really sorry.”

“No, I don’t mind.” I responded. So that’s how that muscle head explained everything to him. Just a friend huh? If we’re only friends then why would you go as far as Germany to visit me? Are you trying to act dumb or will you just believe what they tell you? 

“this might be awkward but what’s your name again? Naiz?.... “

“It’s Noiz.” I corrected him.

“I see, I’m so sorry Noiz-san for forgetting all about you. Granny told me that it might take a while to regain my memories. But she also said that there’s a possibility that I might not never regain them.”

“No it’s alright. We can just start all over again right?” I told him.

“huh? I guess you’re right.”

“I only have a few weeks left before I will return to Germany but I hope that we can use that time to get to know each other again.”

“ye..yes! of course!” Aoba agreed as he smiled happily.

His smile hasn’t changed, it also makes me want to smile. 

“by the way… I’m sorry for hitting on Koujaku yesterday.” I apologized.

“no, don’t worry about it. he explained to me that both of you are not on good terms lately.”

“Really now? That’s quite true though.” I told him with a smirk on my face.

“Eh?? Why?” he asked curiously.

“Well.. that’s because….” Then I started to explain to him everything from the beginning. We ended up talking the whole day. honestly I didn’t even felt the hours passing by  
because when I’m with him. I feel that the time had stopped moving. It was really good feeling, I never felt this happy for a while now. To talk to Aoba like this it takes me back.

“Ah! I can’t believe that it’s almost evening!” Aoba exclaimed as he checked his coil.

“Hey, is that a new coil?” I asked.

“Yeah, Granny told me that my old one got stolen so she bought me a new one.” He answered. “Although they look a bit the same.”

“Could I have your email?” 

“huh? Sure why not!” he agreed and smiled.

Both of us exchanged emails and planned to hang out again tomorrow.

“See you tomorrow Noiz-san! Take care!” Aoba shouted as he leaves the area waving his hands on me.

“Bye, take care as well.” I waved back at him and see him off.

I let off a sigh of relief knowing that we were able to talk to each other normally. I thought that I would have lost my temper and forced him to stay with me. When I thought about it I laughed. It would have been the same like the first time we met. I took him by surprise, stalked him and forced him to play Rhyme with me. But I’m not that person anymore, I know better now. 

And I promise you, that I’ll make you fall in love with me all over again.  
\----

A little while later…. (Koujaku’s POV)

“I’m sorry for being late Koujaku!” Aoba apologized as he went inside his apartment. “Ahh… and I’m home.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad that you managed to get back safely and besides I just arrived as well.” I told him as I was fixing my stuff.

“Actually, Noiz-san walked with me until I told him that I can walk on my own.” Aoba confessed shyly.

“Noiz-san? You mean the guy that punched me in the face?” I asked him.

“Yes, we met earlier and well…. We started to talked to each other. I apologized for not being able to remember him and he told me that it was fine. Actually the reason I was late  
is because we tried to catch up the lost times and I also got carried away by it.” he explained as his face turns into light red.

Hmm… I wonder if he’s embarrassed about it or is he feeling something else.

“Say, Aoba….” I opened my mouth out of suspicion.

“What is it?” Aoba wondered.

“Do you know that, you and Noiz don’t get along with each other at first?” I asked nervously.

“Yeah, he told me about it. And to be honest I was pretty surprise how we ended up becoming friends. He told me that the first time we met was when he forced me to place rhyme and then he kept bothering me about it, he even broke into my house and threaten Ren just so he could play rhyme with me. But in the end we managed to forget out differences and became friends after platinum jail got destroyed.” 

“Wow so he explained everything to you huh?”

“Pretty much, he even told me that he used to look like a fashion disaster. Wearing only neon green-colored clothes and leggings under his pants in all. It was so funny that I even begun to laugh. He even told me that he got this multiple piercings in his body before but not now. So I didn’t believe him and he showed me a picture of his old self! It was really surprising, you should have been there Koujaku!” Aoba happily explained his day with Noiz. I don’t what to say but I feel a little sad that Aoba’s so happy just because he talked to Noiz.

“So umm…. I don’t want you to put any malice on what I’ll say next but did Noiz told you what kind of relationship you guys have?” I asked.

“Did you even listen to what I said, you hippo!”

“huh?”

“He told me that we were just friends. And besides… he told me that he has someone special already.”

“And that special someone might be?...”

“I don’t know! He just told me that because of that person he changed for the better. But you know what really is sad?”

“What is?”

“That his special someone might not be able to recognize him anymore.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because he told me that he probably changed too much and by the time the special person comes back, she will be shock.” (A/N: yeah Aoba assumes that it’s a girl ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

When he talks about the special person, he seems to be sad. Could it be that he’s a little bit jealous? There’s no way right? So I decided to hug him and lie down on the bed.

“You perverted hippo, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Nothing, I’m just tried.” right now, I actually don't know what to do. I actually feel bad for him. I lied to Aoba and I know that someday this will haunt me. But then if it's for his happiness and safety then I won't mind deceiving him. I hope that you understand this someday Aoba.

 

“You can’t use me as a pillow you know!”

“I know but let’s stay like this a little.”

“Hmmm… this is very weird.”

“Don’t be, we’ve done this when we were kids.”

“So you’re saying that this is for old times’ sake?”

“yeah.” I told him as I close my eyes.

“Fine then.” Aoba agreed and I felt him touching my hair.

The next morning, it was still early so Aoba was still asleep. 

I decided to walk around a little bit when I notice someone was waiting outside my apartment.

“Yo!” I greeted him.

“Boring greeting as usual huh old man?” the kid retorted.

“What do you want now Noiz.” I sighed.

“Nothing, I’m just actually here to tell you that I think you’re hiding something from me. Not only but also Aoba’s grandmother.”

“No way! I already told you everything!’ I denied.

“You say that but the way you explain your story is very weird. I don’t know which part of it is weird but I’m sure that there’s something that you’re not telling me.” The brat  
explained as he walked around like a detective that had cracked a very important case.

I remained silent knowing that he will only try to use it against me.

“I’ll expose everything that you’re hiding.” The brat announced.

I couldn’t help but glared at him. You’re that determined huh? Should I just tell him about everything? No! I mustn’t lose to a kid like him. 

“You say that but isn’t it hard proving to Aoba?”

“You may say that but he believed me in everything that I said yesterday. So I doubt that he wouldn’t believe me. And besides… this is my second chance to prove my love for Aoba  
and I won’t try to screw it over by telling him lies.”

“Tch!” this brat is really irritating me. Why can’t you just leave Aoba alone? Didn’t he suffered enough already? I’m only doing this to protect him. Do you think I like to play the bad guy in this relationship?

“That’s all I have to say now. So I’ll be going now. Bye!” he said as he walked back.

“The ring….” Words started to come out from my mouth.

“Huh?” he wondered as he turned back at me.

“I didn’t see it when Aoba was in the hospital. It's possible that the ones who beat him probably stole it as well.” I confessed.

“What?!” he exclaimed.

-End of Chapter 4-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so basically Koujaku wants to have the last laugh that's why he mentions the "ring"  
> I'm sorry for any missing words or wrong grammar! i didn't have the time to proof read my fic! i'm sorry


	5. Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz gives a ring to Aoba on Valentines day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't mean to antagonize Koujaku but he's really just looking out for Aoba. and again thank you for the support! i love you all so much ^^

Chapter 5: “Ring”

This happened few months ago, to be precise Valentine’s Day.

“Noiz, this is a bit too extravagant don’t you think?” Aoba asked as he looked around the place.

Yes, the place alone looked exquisite, it must have been a well-known restaurant. Judging by its interior design and good quality food, this place must have been very popular. But how does Aoba know anyway? He’d been staying for Germany for almost a year now but he still doesn’t get too familiar with the place especially those areas that looked fancy.

“Nothing’s too extravagant if you want to have a memorable romantic dinner with the one you love.” Noiz answered as he lifts a glass of wine and drank it.

“No, no, no. this is too much I mean. We’re the only people here. It must have been expensive to reserve this place just for this occasion.” Aoba argued.

“It’s not that expensive at all plus, I want you and me to have a memorable time on our date. I know how nervous you get when there are a lot of people.” Noiz said as he approaches Aoba’s lips.

Aoba knows what’s going to happened next and closed his eyes. By the time Noiz’s lips were almost near Aoba’s. Aoba was surprised that he didn’t kissed him and opened his eyes.

“Aoba look, there’s a shooting start.” Noiz pointed out.

“Huh? Where?” Aoba asked as he turned around.”Noiz I didn’t see any shooting star are you messing with me?”

By the time Aoba turned back he saw Noiz kneeling on the floor.

Aoba was surprised, speechless and his face became very red.

“I just made a wish, will you make it come true?” Noiz asked as he pulled out a box.

“Huh? What is this? This is so embarrassing!” Aoba exclaimed as he tried to cover his excitement and happiness.

Noiz laughed and stood back up, opened the box and got closer to him.

“I just said that I saw a shooting star right? But you didn’t see it, you don’t know it yet but you’ll soon see it too. “

“Wait, what’s with this cheesy pick-up line? I know that you’re going to say something so embarrassing so let’s just cut to the chase.”

Noiz brought up a light smile on his face and said, “ I was going to say that you are the shooting star. You make my wishes come true and I want to do the same thing to you to. So Aoba please…”

Noiz begun to kneel down on the floor again and opened the box.

“Will you accept this?” he asked.

“Idiot even if you don’t have a ring I will this accept your feelings you know!”

“I guess so but this is not just a fancy gift. This is our pre-engagement ring.”

“Pre-engagement?”

“That’s right. Our engagement ring will be more beautiful than this ring, I can assure you that by the end of this year we will make our engagement official and by the time I get to a high rank in the company I will marry you.”

What Noiz said is like a vow and Aoba couldn’t contain his feelings anymore he hugged Noiz.

“So basically this is our engaged-to-be-engage wedding ring?”

“That’s right, want to try them on?”

When Noiz put the ring into Aoba’s finger, the ring didn’t fit. Noiz tried every finger of Aoba but it seems that the ring he bought was too small. Aoba couldn’t help but laugh seeing Noiz being frustrated over a small ring.

“It’s ok. I will still accept this.” Aoba said and took the ring from Noiz. “I will treasure this.”

Noiz couldn’t help himselft but laugh and carry Aoba.

“! Don’t do things so suddenly!” Aoba shouted.

“Well you were the one who did it first.” Noiz replied and kissed Aoba.

And I think you know what happens next *wink, wink*

The next day, Aoba suddenly woke up from the urge to drink.

When he got up to drink, he saw the ring that Noiz gave him last night at the table. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw it. he was really happy that their relationship is getting strong and stronger. So he took the ring and kissed it.

“From now on, I will treasure this. This is a sign of Noiz’s wish coming true and I want him to be happy. No, I want us to be happy together and this is the sign that we’ll always be together.”

In the present….

“You bastard!” Noiz shouted and started to punch Koujaku. “How the hell did you know about that?!” Noiz interrogated Koujaku as he violently punched him.

“I’m his best friend of course it’s natural for me to know.” Koujaku answered with a smile on his face.

“Don’t give me that stupid reason!” Noiz replied as he continues to beat Koujaku up.

As Noiz beats Koujaku, he realizes that Koujaku wasn’t fighting him back and so he stopped.

“Why?” Noiz asked.

Koujaku, who was beaten really bad, coughed blood from his mouth and rubbed his face, stood up and looked at Noiz.

“Why didn’t you fight back?” Noiz asked again.

Koujaku just stared at him and cleaned his kimono.

“Answer me you muscle head!” Noiz demanded as he threathen to beat Koujaku again.

Koujaku remained silent and finally left off a sigh.

“You’re really pathetic you, you said earlier that you’re going to expose what I’m hiding but do you really think you gain anything from this? I thought you were smarter than this bean sprout.” Koujaku said as he headed back to his apartment.

“He—hey! Where do you think your going?” Noiz shouted. “We’re not done yet here!”

“Oh but I am.” Koujaku replied.

“I said wa--!” just before Noiz could even say anything else. Koujaku grabbed his collar and said, “Listen here! I don’t have any intention of telling you anything else ok? What I said earlier was just a slip of the tongue. You just got lucky.” Then he let go of Noiz and open his apartment door.

Before he left to go inside he left an advice, “You two have been lovers for a while now and yet you don’t know anything what had happened to him or how he felt during those time. Just because you were happy doesn’t met he was as well.”

Then Koujaku slammed the door in front of Noiz.

Koujaku’s words were stuck deep in Noiz’s head. Noiz kept thinking that Aoba was probably only forcing himself to be happy. What if their relationship was only based on a lie? What if Koujaku said was not true? What if it is true?

Noiz wondered about this until he reached to his hotel room.

Usagimodoki jumped for joy when Noiz returned and told him that Theo was calling for him for a while now. Noiz probably didn’t notice this because he was thinking too much of what had just happened.

So Noiz called Theo and explained everything to him.

“I see, I understand if you want to extend your vacation I can-“

As Theo was talking Noiz cut him off and said, “It’s ok I’ll go back to work earlier than you think.”

“What? Nii-san are you giving up?” Theo asked worriedly.

“No I just need to…” as Noiz replied he looked to the matching ring that he gave to Aoba. He didn’t wore it in his finger but rather he put it in a necklace and put it in his neck. “… to think things through first.”

As much as Noiz hates to admit defeat. He really screwed up this. He’s sure that Aoba would hate him for beating Koujaku up and not only that he also realizes that he didn’t know what Aoba truly feels for him. All this time he’s been so busy with work that he rarely talks with him and whenever he has his day off, Aoba would usually want him to rest knowing that he was tired from working. Noiz couldn’t help but to let Aoba go when he returns to Germany. He’s hoping that Aoba would at least remain faithful for him until he comes back but he also thinks it’s impossible since Koujaku had been there for Aoba for all these times.

“Ah, nii-san are you ok?” Theo asked.

“Yeah, I’m just thinking of something. Anyway, I’ll return after three weeks.”

“Three weeks? I thought you’re staying there for a month?”

“I told you didn’t i? I’m gonna stay here shorter. Besides…. It will give me time to think on what I will do.”

“Nii-san…”

“and also didn’t one of those famous author said that Time is a Test of Love? If it is I want to let Aoba know that I truly love him.”

“Nii-san are saying that?....”

“It’s not impossible right?”

“I guess so but didn’t you say that his best friend and grandmother are hiding something from you?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll of a way to find out about it.”

“I see, it’s good that you’re feeling alive again. But I still need to get back to work. Bye!”

“Bye!” Noiz greeted good bye as he turn off his coil.

He couldn’t help but wonder on what he’ll do next, should he show up at Koujaku’s place and apologize or not? Should he just tell Aoba about them or not? Thinking about it makes his head hurt, he didn’t have any trouble thinking like this when he was a work or when he working. Why is he so dedicated to Aoba knowing that their relationship might base on a lie? Will he be happy if he knows the truth or not? All of these question bottling up in Noiz’s head makes him want to meditate on his action and think critically.

While on the other hand, at Koujaku’s apartment.

“You shouldn’t have started a fight early in this morning.” Aoba said as he took the first aid kit from the cabinet.

“It’s not early you know. It’s almost 10:30.’ Koujaku corrected as he feels the cotton being rubbed in his face. “But that kid really did a number on me.”

“You shouldn’t have provoked him.” Aoba added and put some bandages on Koujaku’s wounds.

“Yeah but he started it.” Koujaku argued.

“Stupid Hippo! You know better than that!”

“I guess so but sometimes I couldn’t help acting like a child.”

“you’re an adult you should at least act like one or else no would want be close to you.”

“but you’re here and you even put up with my childish non-sense.”

“that’s because your my best friend! And besides, I couldn’t just leave you after all the things you’ve done for me.”

“You say that you just feel sorry for me.”

“No, I mean it! you’ve always been a hero to me. Always.”

When Koujaku heard this he felt happy knowing that Aoba’s genuinely concerned about him but deep down in his heart, he knows that he’s keeping him away from something else. And this feeling started to hurt his chest, the feeling of regret and guilt. He then closed his eyes and remembered the time when Aoba visited him from Germany:

“Yo Aoba! It’s been a while.” He greeted.

“Hey Koujaku.” Aoba greeted back and of course, since the ring didn’t fit in Aoba’s hand he putin around a necklace and wore it (just like Noiz’s). Koujaku couldn’t help but notice it. but instead of putting that up, he just ignored it and saw something that is more important. Aoba’s hair was long so it was hard to notice but since he’s a rib leader, he couldn’t help but notice the bruise on his face.

“Say, Aoba. Did Noiz did that to you?” Koujaku couldn’t help but wonder.

“What are you talking about?” Aoba denied and tried to hide the bruise on his left cheek.

Koujaku was beginning to get angry knowing that his best friend was potentially hurt by his lover. “Please Aoba, answer me!” Koujaku begged.

Aoba couldn’t help but see his best friend on his knees and on the verge of crying just to know why he had that bruise. Then he gave a sigh and said, “It was…”

_-End of Chapter 5_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry if i couldn't make the nii-san part into english because the way theo address noiz in th drama cd is nii-san so i do humbly apologize! please tell me if i have some grammar issues or missing words. since i just didn't have the time to proof read ^^


	6. Switch-an-Allmate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz and Aoba agreed to switch allmates for a day. Noiz begins his search to uncover Aoba's suffering and Aoba learns new things about Noiz... well... it was suppose to be that but another thing unexpectedly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry for nnot posting yesterday! i was busy studying for the finals but now i'm free so here's a long chpater to make-up for the lost times!
> 
> as always thank you for the comments supports and kudos!

Chapter 6: Switch-an-Allmate for a Day

(This is just a continuation from the previous chapter flashback)

“How long these been happening?” Koujaku asked worriedly as he sees Aoba shaking after confessing everything to him.

“It’s been weeks now.” Aoba responded but he wouldn’t look at Koujaku’s eye instead he was staring at the floor.

Koujaku sighed knowing that Aoba doesn’t wantmto worry or bother him. “Does Tae-san know about this?”

“Yes, I’ve told her about it before I left Germany. I don’t know why… but I couldn’t help myself from telling everything to granny. She was very worried about it but I told her I’ll manage. Well… I’ve managed all of it this far but now…. I don’t know if I could even continue….”

Aoba held himself as he tried to stop crying. Koujaku wanted to comfort him but he knows that if he touches Aoba, it could lead to a misunderstanding between him and Noiz, so he only gave a sympathetic look. During this time, Koujaku couldn’t help but feel useless, he couldn’t do anything even to comfort him. He was angry at himself for it but he is also angry at Noiz.

Koujaku kept thinking about:

_Why is doesn’t he care about his partner?_

_Aoba’s suffering but he’s living his life out there._

_What did Aoba do to deserve this?_

Then it hit him. He thought of an idea to help Aoba. And said, “Don’t think of this in a wrong way but wouldn’t it be better if you two will break up? I mean it’s the best solution in this problem isn’t?” he tried not to look in Aoba’s eyes knowing that his suggest can cause their friendship to end. But to Koujaku he’s willing to take that risk as long as it could help his best friend to be happy and safe.

Aoba’s eyes widen in shook when he heard the words Koujaku told him.

Going back to the present, it was only day three and Noiz knew that he screwed up big yesterday. He doesn’t know what to do, knowing that he just found out that Aoba has something that he’s not telling him. As he was walking around the Old Residential district. He unconsciously went to Aoba’s old house.

“Why the hell did I even went here? Should I even continue walking? What if I’ll bump into his grandmother, should I ask her about Aoba or not? What if I’ll know something I’ll regret?”

Just as Noiz was pondering around his head, he was surprise to see Aoba.

Both of them looked at each other for a moment to realize that they weren’t imagining it.

“Oh… he..hey… Noiz-san.” Aoba greeted as he avert his eyesight from Noiz.

“He..hey …” Noiz greeted bac as he averted his eyes away frim Aoba as well.

It was an awkward situation and both of them knew it. The air was filled with awkwardness when both of them didn’t speak after greeting to each other.

“You know…” Noiz tried to break the awkward silence. “You don’t need to address me so formally. Just call me Noiz it’s fine. Plus I’m younger than you.” Noiz said as he tried to look away from him.

“I guess that makes sense….wai-t…what?! You’re younger than me?!” Aoba exclaimed in surprise.

“Yeah. You didn’t changed at all.” Noiz responded as laughed.

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean this, we this conversation once before. And I can’t believe that you still have the same reaction! Oh man! I can’t believe that you fell for this TWICE!” Noiz confessed as he started to laugh uncontrollably.

“Hey, it’s not my fault. You look too tall for your age and the way you talk is way too formal.” Aoba said as he begin to sulk.

“Eh??? Was that a compliment or an insult?” Noiz asked jokingly.

“Sh-shut up! Stupid brat…” Aoba pouted, blushed and looked away because of embarrassment.

When Noiz saw this, he couldn’t help himself but smile, he remembers how the Aoba now and the Aoba before are so similar. And that he forgot for a little while that the Aoba he’s with now is different from before. He wanted to hug him and kiss him and say, _“It was just a joke. Don’t get angry.”_ He slowly moved his hand and…..

“Noiz.” Ren called out as he plop his head out from Aoba’s bag.

Noiz was snapped back from reality and moved his hand behind his back.

“Oh, Ren. I must have forgot to turn you off.” Aoba said as he looked at his fluffy allmate.

“Aoba, is it ok if you will let Noiz talk to me?” Ren asked as he wagged his tail.

“Now, that you think about it. I left you in his place. So I guess you got attached to him, huh?” Aoba remembered as he brushed Ren’s fluffy head. “But to tell you honestly, I’m kinda jealous that you two are close.”

“If you want you have my allmate.” Noiz offered.

“What?! Why would you just throw away you’re allmate like that?” Aoba asked as he feels a little bit angry.

“It’s not throwing away. I’m just lending it to you and besides I know how close you are to your allmate. I even remembered one time that you got so drunk that you told me that you cried at work simply because you left Ren at home.”

“Wh-what?! I’ve never done that! right Ren?”

“I can’t say anything regarding that matter.” Ren apologized as he lowered his ear.

Noiz begun to laugh out loud (literally) and Aoba couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. But Noiz’s laughter was contagious so Aoba ended up laughing with him.

“Fine. I’ll take you up with that offer.” Aoba agreed.

“Huh?” Noiz asked in bewilderment.

“I’ll take care of your allmate when you talk to Ren.”

“That sounds great but I don’t think that I can talk to Ren with just a few hours.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that Ren and I still have lots of stuff to talk about since I’ve last talked to him.”

“What are you saying, you guys haven’t talked like for three days only.”

“You say that but you can’t even let go of him for that long.”

“!”  Aoba exclaimed.

“Haha, so what do you say. Let’s switch an allmate for a day?”

Aoba first felt a little bit unsure about it but it seems that Noiz and Ren are pretty serious about it.

“Fine.” Aoba surrendered and handed Ren over to Noiz. “But you should be careful, Ren is…”

“I know he needs to be monitored every now and then.” Noiz interrupted Aoba.

“So where’s your allmate?”

“Here.” Noiz said as he threw Usagimodoki over to Aoba.

“Oww… it’s so small and cute! What’s your name little fella?”

“P! Midori! P! Midori!”  Usagimodoki answered as it bounced for joy.

“Eh, that’s a cute name!” Aoba complimented.

“P! Thank you! P! You… er… Noiz is the one that named me! P!” Usagimodoki responded as it jumped happily again.

“Noiz, named you? Wow! I didn’t expect him to have that cute side. More importantly, to even think that he has a cute allmate like you.” Aoba joked around.

Noiz hears Usagimodoki and Aoba getting along well, he even hears Usagimodoki telling Aoba more embarrassing about him and Aoba used it to insult Noiz. In the end both of them had a great time talking to each other and departed ways.

“Bye! See you tomorrow. Take care Ren!” Aoba shouted as he waved good bye to Ren.

“Bye!” both Ren and Noiz said and Noiz holds Ren’s little paw to wave good bye to Aoba.

A few minutes later.

“Was this your plan all along?” Ren asked.

“What is?” Noiz asked back.

“To switch allmates so that Aoba would know more about you and possibly trigger his memory back.”

“Probably. But I really do want to talk to you. I’d prefer to call it a double win. I’ll be able to learn more information about Aoba through you and he get to know more about me through Midori. So it’s a win-win right?”

“To even think things this through so fast. You’re very clever Noiz.”

“Nah, it’s my job. After all I’m planning to expose someone to the core.”

Ren looked up to see Noiz and he was amazed on how Noiz is determined to get Aoba back.

“Although, we kind of forgot to talk about me beating the crap out of Koujaku yesterday.” Noiz added.

“I don’t think that topic needs to be picked up anymore.” Ren replied.

And so they returned to their respective places. Aoba was still staying at Koujaku, he remembered Koujaku telling him that it wasn’t safe to stay in his house until all the members of the rib team that beat him were locked up but honestly Aoba doesn’t mind and he thinks that he can handle himself if there ever was a revenge fight.

“I’m home.” Aoba announced as he removed his jacket.

“P! it’s so red! So red!” Usagimodoki said.

“Shhh… you need to be quiet, if Koujaku will see I’m sure he’s going to get mad at you!” Aoba warned Usagimodoki as he held him with both of his palm.

“P! I’m sorry!” Usagimodoki apologized and showed like a sad emoticon on its face.

“Don’t worry about it.” Aoba smiled.

So the two of them talked as they wait for Koujaku to return home.

While at the other hand, Noiz and Ren where in serious matter.

“So what did you tell to Aoba?” Noiz asked seriously.

“I didn’t told him about your relationship with him. Beni told me to keep it a secret or else it could trigger his memory back.”

“And this is a problem???”

“No, but I think the Aoba now is better and happier than before.”

“Geez, you’re just like them. Are you seriously against our relationship?”

“No but to compare the stress level that Aoba had before, right now he doesn’t feel any stress or fatigue at all.”

“What are you saying? Give me a comparative result of his mental analysis from your biochip and show me a chart of it.”

And so Ren did, a screen appeared on Ren’s face showing the different stress levels of Aoba in the time when Ren was activated.

“These results…. They’re pretty messed up.” Noiz commented.

“I agree with you.” Ren agreed.

 In the screen it was showed that around February (during Valentine’s Day and before) Aoba’s stress level were low. But it slowly rose up after a few days. The highest were around the time before he last visited Japan before losing his memory. His stress level were so high that it was enough for a normal person to kill themselves. It didn’t get low until Aoba had the incident recently.

“I didn’t expect him to be this stressed. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“That’s because, Aoba himself said that he was alright. I know that as an allmate I should prioritize my master’s well-being but it seems that Aoba doesn’t want me nor you to worry about him. That’s why I just tried my best to not let his stress level go higher than it already is.”

“That explains why you didn’t bother telling him that he forgot about you (refer to chap 1)”

“Yes.”

Because of the new found knowledge Noi obtain, he couldn’t help himself but feel useless. He himself thought that since he’s in Germany, he’ll do his best to make their lives better and to not let Aoba be worried about him or anything but it backfired on hims and he now feels guilty for it.

“Oh man, what shitty lover am I?” Noiz begins to question his identity.

Going back to Aoba and Usagimodoki. Both of them were bonding so well with each other but it was interrupted when Kou from Benishigure appeared in their front door.

“Kou?!” Aoba exclaimed as he begins to fear something bad as happened.

Kou was panting so hard and took his time to breathe. “Aoba-san! *huff* It’s Koujaku-san! *huff*”

“Wha…what happened?”

Kou looked him in the eyes with a pale face. “He was sent to the hospital!”

When Aoba heard the news he immediately run to the hospital.

“P! what happened? What happened?” Usagimodoki couldn’t help itself but to ask as it peeks at Aoba from his pocket.

“It’s my bestfriend, he was sent to the hospital.”

“Why?”

“Apparently, he found out the location of the rib the robbed and beat me up. He recklessly advanced forward without backup and got himself injured! That guy! He…he…”

As Aoba was explaining to Usagimodoki he couldn’t help himself but to cry. He was worried to Koujaku, is he alright? Why would he go that far for him? Is he going to be ok?

Thoughts are running around to Aoba’s mind as he couldn’t help to think the worse.

What Aoba doesn’t know everything that he and Usagimodoki were talking are directly being sent to Noiz. So Noiz knows what’s currently happening.

“Ren, I think this switch-an-allmate for a day would work.”

“Huh?”

“We’re going to the hospital right now.” Noiz announced as he prepares his stuff and Ren followed him.

While all of this commotion happening. Tae-san was at her house, looking at a jewelry box. In the box, there was a necklace that had a ring on it.

Tae couldn’t help but remember the day when the police told her that the only thing that they managed to save from Aoba was the ring.

“he really treasure this you know.” Tae said as she closed the jewelry box and remembered the first time Aoba told her about the ring Noiz gave him. She couldn’t help but smile to that happy memory. But the second memory she remember was when Aoba was crying over their chat through the webcam. Aoba had a painful expression on him which made Tae sad as well.

She closed her eyes and sighed.

“I don’t think you need to remember those time. I don’t want to relive the moment where my grandson nearly cried himself to bed. It’s too painful for a grandmother to see.”

Going back to the main story, Aoba was at the waiting room. He was anxious to know if he can see Koujaku now or not. He was able to get the whole story from the other members. Apparently Koujaku directly challenged all the remaining rib member to a duel in which case he won but was badly injured knowing that the rib members were from a strong team. Koujaku passed out from blood loss and was admitted to the hospital.

He was hoping that Koujaku will be alright and prayed for his health.

“Aoba!” Noiz shouted.

“No—Noiz!” Aoba was surprised to see him there. He tried to wipe off his tears but Noiz immediately hugged him.

“Noiz?”

-End of Chapter 6-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanted it to end dramatically like aoba slapping noiz but then it didn't made sense so yeah....  
> and i'm sorry if there are wrong grammar spelling or missing words! i was in a hurry to finish this!


	7. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoba, Noiz and Koujaku felt guilty to things that they've done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the support,comments and kudos! it really helped me a lot :)
> 
> i apologize for this short chapter due to me having a mental block

So before anything else, this is a quick recap on how Noiz see the current situation.

Objective: to let Aoba fall in love with him again.

Theo - Allies

Usagimodoki - Allies

Old Man (Koujaku) – Enemies

 Aoba’s Grandmother - Enemies

Ren – Ally or Enemy?

Chapter 7: “Guilt”

“No—Noiz?!” Aoba was surprised that Noiz was hugging him. Even seeing him here was a surprise. He tried to get away from him but Noiz held him tight.

“It’s ok Aoba. If you want to cry, CRY! Scream even if it’s necessary. You don’t need to hold your feelings anymore.” Noiz said as he held Aoba tighter into his arms.

“Noiz! This is….” As Aoba tried to talk Noiz out of letting him go. He started crying. “I’m so sorry! I’m so scared! Wha…what if something bad happens to Koujaku! I’m so worried…. I…” Aoba couldn’t held back his tears and started to cry more loudly.

“Aoba, I know that you try your best to keep yourself calm so that no one would be worried about. You were afraid that if you rely on someone too much, you’ll lose them but you shouldn’t be scared. It’s normal to worry and be worried at. So at least this time let me hear your worries…..

If only I could have done this before….” Noiz thought.

And so the both of them held unto each other’s arms until a nurse told them that it’s ok to see Koujaku. After being told by the nurse, Aoba hurried to Koujaku’s room but stopped when he noticed Noiz was not with him.

“Noiz!’ Aoba called out.

“What?” Noiz looked back at him.

“Aren’t you going to see if Koujaku’s ok?”

“Why would I? and besides I know that guy will be alright since you’ll be with him.” Noiz told him that with a bitter sweet smile as he walked out the hospital.

Aoba couldn’t help but feel a little pain from his chest. “What is this feeling?” he wondered.

Aoba walked to Koujaku’s room with a puzzled face. He couldn’t seem to explain what he feels when Noiz told him those words and he seem to be worried on what he’ll say to Koujaku. When he opened the door.

“Yo!” Koujaku greeted him.

Aoba started to cry again. He sees Koujaku all bandaged up and had an IV attached to his arms.

“Huh? What’s with those tears?” Koujaku asked as he started to panic as to why Aoba cried.

“it’s because of you, hippo!” Aoba pouted and wipes the tears off his face. “You have no idea how worried I was! How could you be reckless? You don’t have to go that far you know!”

Koujaku starts to laugh. “These wounds are nothing! What they did to you is far worse than this. So they only got what they deserve.”

“But, you didn’t have to fight them alone! You could have waited for your other group members to help you!”

“It’s because of you that I couldn’t help myself but to jump off in front of them.”

“Koujaku..”

Aoba leaned forward towards him and Koujaku held him into his arms. “I’m sorry for making you worry. I promise, I won’t do this again. So you don’t need to worry again, ok?”

Aoba nodded as he hugged back Koujaku.

“Aoba… holding you in my arms right now is what I’ve wanted for a long time now but… why, do I feel sad? Do I feel guilty for something?” Koujaku thought as he brushed off Aoba’s hair.

The next day, around noon time.

Aoba returned to Koujaku’s apartment to take some stuff back to the apartment.

“Aoba, is something wrong?” Ren asked.

“No..no. It’s nothing just forget about it.” Aoba replied with a smile and put Ren on sleep mode. “This time, I’ll ask him!”

When Aoba walked out to Koujaku’s apartment, he saw Noiz.

“So how’s the muscle head?” he asked.

“There were no complications or whatsoever. He only needed to stay there until tomorrow.”

“I see, that’s good then. I’ll be leaving now.”

“Wait!”

“What is it?”

“U…um… I don’t know….Actually, it’s nothing?”

“o..OK. Bye then.”

“Bye….”

As Aoba saw Noiz left, he couldn’t help but feel something’s not right. But he ignored it again and went on his way to visit Koujaku.

When he opened the door and saw Koujaku talking to the others of his team.  Upon entering, Koujaku signaled his teammates to leave and they did.

“So what seems to be the problem?” Koujaku asked.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Aoba responded as he fix the things that he brought from the apartment.

“You say that but I know that something’s bothering you. Come on! Tell me about it.” he reassured him.

“I said it’s nothing.” Aoba pouted.

“Hehehe you look cute when you act like that.” Koujaku said jokingly as he laughs at Aoba.

“Shut up hippo!” Aoba replied as he look away from embarrassment.

Koujaku stood up and hugged Aoba from the back.

“Have you been worrying about me?” he asked.

“Of course, I am! What if those people are going to take revenge on you?”

“Don’t worry about them. The other guys from my team told me that they caught the remaining members.”

“Really? That’s amazing.”

“They even caught the members that run away when they beat you up.”

“What?!”

“You may not remember it but there were some people who run away when the police arrived. So my members caught them and surrender them to the police.”

“But isn’t it a bit too much? I mean why would you go that far for me?”

Koujaku remained silent. Perhaps he can’t exactly tell why he did those things. Was it out of love? Friendship? Or GUILT? Koujaku doesn’t understand it himself why he really want the best for Aoba but he knows that he wants him to be happy.

At first when he found out he that Aoba lost his memory and he immediately want him to forget that he was suffering greatly, he wanted to let him forget that he ever met the guy named Noiz but what does he gain from it? Did Koujaku really get what he want? By using a lie to make Aoba his? Is he happy about the decision he made?

Sure, he was happy at first but when Aoba met Noiz for the second time. That’s where things gets messy and now… he’s feeling a bit sad, whenever he see Aoba with Noiz or Aoba talking about Noiz. But what’s even worse is that he feels a slight pain on his chest whenever he sees Aoba smiling and being happy with him.

Why was it? a lot of things were going on his mind until he came up to a conclusion. The guilt that he had is too much, so he had no choice but to give in.

“Aoba….” He called out while taking a big gulp.

“hmm?” Aoba looked at him.

“I have something to tell you….”

While at the other hand, Noiz was back at the Old Residential area.

“Why the hell do I end up going to his house again?” Noiz wondered as rubbed his head.

“Noiz?!” a voice appeared.

When Noiz looked at the one who called him, he was surprise to see Tae.

“T…Tae…-san?”

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Germany?”

“I had a few weeks off. “ Noiz answered as he was thinking of something to talk to her. “Umm… actually I’m here to ask you something.”

“huh? What is it?”

“When are you planning on telling Aoba the truth?”

-end of chapter 6-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this felt a bit rushed since i want this to go to the main heart of the story.


	8. Void

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoba's POV during his recovery and rehabilitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realize that Noiz had been in Midorijima for only four days and yet in those four days, Koujaku already got beat up in the first three days straight XD
> 
> As usual thank you for the comments, kudos and support! X3

Chapter 8: "Void"

Aoba's POV

I don't know why but my body feels so heavy somehow, not only that but it seems that my head feels the same way too. I wonder, what happened?

As I try to think more, my mind seems to be going deeper and deeper, like you're drowing in an ocean with no chance of surviving. Just drowning until you've reached the buttom end of it.

I didn't feel anything nor I don't remember anything, it felt like I was a huge void of nothingness, like a rock.

_Is this a dream?_

My eyes, they weren't moving. I can't move around my body. I really thought that I was going to die! I begun to panic but when I did, I felt something strange. I don't know what it is but, it's soothing. It made my body and mind feel lighter and calmer. And the next thing I now....

I woke up.

I slowly blinked and saw two figures looking at me, by the time I regained focus of my sight. I saw granny and Koujaku looking at me so worriedly.

"Aoba!" Koujaku called out of joy and smiled gleefuly.

"You finally, woke up!" Granny commented and smlied.

I moved my head to get closer to them, when I tried. I felt a sharp sting all over my body.

 

"Don't move!" Granny warned me as she gets closer to me. "The doctor said that it will be impossible for you to move for a while so bear with it ok?"

"Wh...what..." I tried to open my mouth but my voice was hoarse and dry.

"It's ok. Just rest for a while, Aoba. We'll be here so don't worry." Koujaku said and moved my head to a more comfortable spot of the pillow.

Oh crap, I made them worried about me again, didn't I?

When I thought about it, I couldn't help but put a small curl on my face. I feel lucky that I have these two to worry about me. But didn't I told myself to not depend on them all the time? I'm so useless.

I followed what they told me and slept, I don't know how to explain this but somehow, I never felt so at ease. It was like I can just sleep immediately without a care in the world.

Of course, i was a bit confused on what happened, I was in the hospital when I woke up and I had a lot of doctors and nurses to check up on me. I wonder what had happened, why was I so beaten up? I wasn't able to move completely for like two weeks and I couldn't speak well because my diaphgram hurts when I talk.

So it took me a little while longer to know what exactly was going on. I learned from both my grandmother and Koujaku that I was in a horrible incident when I was on my way home. They said that I protected a young couple from a robber and got beaten up pretty badly by his rib members and on a side note those young couple even visited me in the hospital. I was also told that all my things were stolen from me even my coil! Well, I didn't care about it but I wonder what about Ren? Was he stolen too? When I asked them, they said that it was a huge possibility, I was at shock. I mean he was my partner! He was not just some allmate! I really cried when I heard that news, I couldn't even move because of the shock.

But Koujaku told me that there's a possibility that Ren will come back, when I asked him how, he kept silent for a while and dodged the question. 

It wasn't the first time he did that.

It was not only Koujaku but Granny as well, I felt that they were hiding something from me. I know it because I've been with them for most of my life and of course as a natural outcome I can tell from their expressions if something's up. But I didn't question them any longer knowing that they've been through a lot just for me. That's why I just kept quiet about it.

Even though they'e been with me all the time when I was recovering, I couldn't help but feel that there's a huge hole in my heart, not literally. But I feel I'm missing someone.

Someone **important.**

Not only that, I still have a lot of questions on my mind like, how about my job? Why did I lose my memory? The wound that I received in the head is too small to cause my memory loss. Why are they hiding something from me?

Please tell me, what had happened to me those last year and a half!

Just thinking about it made me insane! It was like I was a crazy person trying to make reality something that I could understand. It was so hard for me to endure! But whenever I see those two I couldn't help but just to let go all of my frustrations and just continue on my daily life.

Koujaku helped me a lot with my rehabilitation, he was always there when I keep on falling from trying to walk for the first time after the incident. He didn't give up on me when I felt frustrations during rehab.He never left alone.

He was my wall when I keep on thinking about those weird things again. He kept pulling me back to the reality and say, "It's ok now. Don't worry about anything. I'm here for you." His kind word help me to be motivated and worked through my rehab with my full effort.

And during those time we got close to each other and I was happy. He was my little light of hope in the void of my clouded mind. 

There was one time when he told me that it was ok to remove the bandage in head and so I did. He helped me with it since I'm still aching from the pain in my abdomen. 

"It's amazing how fast you've recovered." he complemented me as he slowly removed the bandage.

"Well it was because the doctors and nurses helped me out a lot." I responded. "Well you and Granny were there as well. So I was pretty motivated to be healed quickly."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

And finally the bandage was off.

"Hey, the wound is completely gone now!" Koujaku said in enjoyment.

"Really?" I asked and took out a mirror to see. "It is!" I too, was happy about it.

Koujaku looked at me for a second and pushed back my hair.

"But there's a little scar in here." he pointed out.

"Well, it can't be helped." I told him as keep on looking at myself in the mirror for more scars. "But it seems that it's just one small scar so there's no biggie."

"Yeah... you shouldn't be ashamed about it." Koujaku encouraged me. I guess me could relate seeing that he has a lot of scars in his body.

"I'm really grateful that you're here with me." I murmured.

"What?" Koujaku asked perhaps he didn't heard me.

"It's nothing, hippo." I retorted as looked away.

So because of that we got close to each other, I even think that we're more than friends now but somehow it made me feel uncomfortable.

And now we're here... (continuation in the previous chapter)

Koujaku confessed to me that Noiz was actually my lover and that he felt bad for not telling me about it.

"I'm so sorry Aoba, I didn't tell you earlier." he apologized as he lowered his head.

I didn't react at all, I just stared at him. It seems that he really is sincere and honest in his confession.

Well actually that explains a lot, like why would I even go that far for a friend, to go to Germany just to visit him. I never really imagined myself to go out the country nor the island for that small reason. And it would also explain the first time I saw him and why he beat Koujaku on the spot. It would also make sense why we got along so well with each other after how bad he made a first impression. And when I talk to him I somehow felt at ease and it was like the huge hole in my heart and mind were easily filled by him. But then it still bugs me.

"Aoba, why aren't you saying anything?" Koujaku asked worriedly. "This is so weird, I just told him about Noiz and their relationship but you didn't even try to ask me if I was joking or not. Aoba... what are you thinking?" 

"It's not that I'm doubting you or anything but I just have somethings that I need to think for my own. If it's ok." I responded and walked near to the door. "I don't hate you for it. It's just that I need some space. If it's ok."

Koujaku seems to be surprise to my reaction. Well I'm actually surprise as well, I'm usually the type of person who would react exaggeratedly but now... why am I so calm?

I wonder that as I walked outside from Koujaku's hospital room.

So I'm in a relationship with a kid that's younger that me and that he even managed to convince me to move to Germany and live with him. It's a bit too fast isn't it? Considering that I only met him few days before Platinum Jail got destroyed. I wonder what happened to us that made us close to each other?

\---

Returning to Noiz's and Tae's situation (third person POV)

"Hmph! So you're here for that?" Tae sighed as she looked back at Noiz. 

"No, not really. I just actually went her by chance and I saw you so I guess you could say that it was a coincidence." Noiz responded.

"Are you trying to be funny because you are not." 

"I was pretty serious."

"Really?"

"Yes." 

Tae couldn't help but feel Noiz is messing with her but when she looked at his eyes he seem to be pretty serious.

"Are you really asking me that question or are you asking yourself?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You have a every right to tell him the truth by the first time you met and yet, why didn't you tell him about it?"

"?!" Noiz was surprised. He didn't realized it as well. Why didn't he told Aoba? What was he afraid off? Rejection? or simply by the thought of being labeled as disgusting by Aoba?

"If you're going to ask questions next time make sure that you ask something that you can't answer yourself." Tae left an advice and walked away.

And after that Noiz walked back home with a very surprised and depressed look on his face.

"Stupid! Why didn't I think of that before? It was so easy and yet why didn't I tell him! I'm sure he would believe, right?" Noiz thought.

He was so busy thinking those words on his way home that he bumped into someone.

"Sorry." he apologized.

"No, I should be sorry." the guy he bumped to apologized as well.

When they look at each other, he noticed that it was Aoba who he bumped into.

"Aoba?"

"Noi..Noiz?"

-End of Chapter 8-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the short chapter! I got my laptop reformatted so I couldn't use Microsoft to check for any errors or page numbers. but on the side note, I just though of something that made this more dramatic :D


	9. Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz and Aoba decided to distanced themselves from each other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for not being able to update for a while! I've been busy and I think that I won't be able to update until June but I'll try my best to add another chapter later!
> 
> thank you for all the comments, supports and kudos!

Chapter 9: "Distance"

  
(Continuation from the previous chapter)

Both Noiz and Aoba bumped unto each other.

"He..hey." Aoba greeted as he put up his hand.

"Hey." Noiz greeted back. "Where are you going anyway? This direction is away from the hospital."

"Oh, I'm just taking a fresh air for a while. What about you?" Aoba asked back.

"I'm actually on my way to my hotel."

"I see, well then see ya!"

  
"Yeah, bye."

And so, the both of them walked on their separate ways. After their meeting that day, they didn't meet with each other for three days straight.

Until.... 

"P! Wake up Noiz! Wake up!" Usagimodoki announced as it tried to wake Noiz up from his sleep by bouncing up and down on his face.

"Shut up! I'm trying to rest here!" Noiz argued and threw Usagimodoki off the wall.

"P! So mean! So mean!" Usagimodoki cried. 

"I'm..just..." Noiz got up and picked up the crying allmate. "I'm sorry. ok?"

"P! I'm just worried! You haven't went out from here for three days! P!"

"Heh... Don't be worried. I'm fine now. It's just that I've been looking for a way on how I'll handle this situation with Aoba." Noiz explained to Usagimodoki and took a deep breath.

"You know what. I'm going to go out for a while. I think a little fresh air can give me a little peace of mind." Then Noiz took his coat and went off.

While at the other hand, Aoba was staying at his Grandmother's house. 

"Umm... Granny." Aoba spoke up.

"What is it?" his granny asked as she took a sip of her tea.

"You know, I've been thinking.... it's been almost a month since I was discharged from the hospital and then... I feel a bit restless knowing that I don't work anymore. I mean the coast is clear now so I was wondering if I can get my old job back." Aoba answered.

"You want to work again?!" his grandmother exclaimed.

"If it's ok with you. I mean I can't always rely on Koujaku and you."

"Do you really think that you're ok? If you feel your fine now... So then, I won't stop you."

"Really? Thanks Granny!" Aoba said as he hugged his grandmother and left.

"I didn't say that you can go immediately!" his grandmother shouted but when she saw her grandson happy, she couldn't help but to take a huge sigh of relief and smiled.

\----

Noiz was walking around town, he couldn't help but smile because of the old memories that had happened on the area. He walked slowly as he enjoyed each moment of remembering. Then he walked on the same street going to Heibon and continued walked there. 

"This is where I first met him after our very first rhyme battle and I remember correctly, that I kissed him here." Noiz thought as he let out a small giggle. "I wonder if things are the same here." Noiz wondered as he opened the door to Heibon.

When Noiz opened the door he noticed that someone was opening it from the other side, so he let go of the handle and let the person from the other side to open it.

"Thank you so much Haga-san!" the person from the other side said and was surprised to see Noiz outside.

"Aoba" Noiz mentioned.

"Ah.... Noiz...." Aoba said as he looked awa and closed the door.

"So... what are you doing here?" Noiz asked.

"I came here to get my old job back." Aoba answered.

"I see... So you want to work again?"

"Yeah. How about you? Why are you here?"

"Oh, I was just walking around town and I ended up here."

"Really?"

"Yeah. By the way, do you know that this is the place where we first met?"

"First meeting? As in person?"

"Yeah. Properly, the time in the rhyme field wasn't counted since it was virtual and I kind of ambushed you."

"I see... I thought that you told me that the first time we met 'properly' was when you broke into my house."

"Really? Did I told you that?" 

"Hehehe, yes. I can't believe that you can't remember that! You're so young to forget stuff like that!" Aoba laughed.

"I could say the same thing to you." Noiz retorted and looked at Aoba. "Actually... there's something that I want to talk to you about."  
Noiz looked seriously at Aoba, in which case Aoba stopped laughing and looked at him as well. Aoba sighed and understood that Noiz wasn't joking around. He looked around the area and said, "If you want to talk about something important, let's go somewhere that's more private."

"Then follow me." Noiz replied and took Aoba's hand. They went to the hotel that he was staying.

"Wow this place looks fancy." Aoba commented as he looked around the place.

"Heh... it's just like you."

"What do you mean?"

"The first time we came to this room, you were just amazed as you are right now." (A/N: Yeah the room he stayed in is the same one they used in the re:connect route.)

"Really?" Aoba confirmed as he was still amazed by the room.

"You're not surprised that the two of us shared a hotel room together?"

"No."

"Then what if I told you that we're not just friends?"

"...."

"Aoba, I'm your lover."

"...." Aoba remained silent as he looked at Noiz.

"It seems that you're not surprised at all."

"No, I'm pretty surprised actually. But the truth is.... Koujaku told me about it three days ago so I had time to panic and to calm down about it. That's all."

"Heh... So by the time we met last time....You already knew about it?"

"Yes."

"Then why?!" Noiz exclaimed and suddenly grabbed Aoba by his shoulders. 

"That hurts!" Aoba responded and tried to get away from Noiz but Noiz held him tighter.

"Why did you tell me about it?!" Noiz violently shakes Aoba's shoulders in distress. "You don't know how much... I've always thought of a way to tell this to you...." he tears begin to fall from his eyes and let's go of Aoba. He was on his knees crying. "It was so painful to think that.... you might reject me... that you'll find me disgusting... or to even think that our relationship was a joke.... that's why...I...." Noiz tried to explain his feeling but he cried out half way there.  
Aoba didn't react to any of rumbles or even to his cries. He just stared at him silently.

"Why are you staring at me like that! Saying something!" Noiz begged.

Aoba remained silent for a little while and... "Four months...."

"Huh?"

"For four months....No... for three and a half months... I was hospitalized...."Aoba started to speak. "I was really a mess you know... even though......I... I.... know that I lost only a year and a half worth of memories.... why did I feel so empty inside?" Aoba let off a small laugh." I was constantly battling with myself. What happened in those days?" Then Aoba broke into tears. " I was so lost. I.... I.... couldn't figure out what was feeling empty inside of me..... It haunted for days and days without end..... What was I doing before all of these? Who was I? Why do I feel different from before? A lot of things were filling my mind and I thought that I was going crazy about it. Koujaku was the only one.... he.....was the only one who helped me through those tough times. He helped me remember who I was..... and what I am.....It was because of him that .....I ....was able to be here today......" Aoba wiped his tears and calmed down.

"Are you saying that you fell in love with him over those few months?!" Noiz asked angrily as he stood up and held Aoba's wrist.

"No... of course not... What I'm trying to say is that...." When Aoba tried to confess tears fell again from his face. "Noiz... I'm sorry..."

When Aoba said this, Noiz felt like a knife got stabbed through his heart directly. "Aoba, are you trying to say.... No! I won't accept this!" Noiz denied violently, held both of Aoba's wrist with one hand and threw Aoba on the bed. He pinned him down so that Aoba wouldn't be able to move and then he started to remove Aoba's clothes.

"Stop!" Aoba shouted and kicked Noiz in the stomach and got away from him.

"You were not there for FOUR MONTHS!" Aoba shouted frustratedly. "Where were you?! Not even once, you visited me. And now that I'm beginning to get my life together, you suddenly show up?! Who do you think you are anyway?" He then slapped Noiz on the face. " And you're planning to resolving this by raping me?!" Aoba was shaking when he slapped Noiz and walked a little distance away from him. " You know... I would have understood if you didn't visited for the first week... but you were not there.... I was always waiting for someone.... someone that would fill this empty mind of mine.... but now that you're here... Tsk.... I think I understood why Granny and Koujaku didn't told me about you. It's over.....I'm sorry." Aoba announced as he looked at Noiz with disgust and left the hotel.

Aoba quickly run away from the hotel as fast as possible and then he....

"Aoba?!" Koujaku was surprised to see Aoba outside his apartment crying and shaking.

"K...Koujaku!" Aoba cried in relief and hugged him tightly.

"What happened?"

"It... was... Noiz...." Aoba tried to explain but he ended up crying and didn't made any sense. Koujaku hugged him back and tried to comfort him.

While at the other hand, Noiz was left alone in the room. He was shock as to what had happened earlier.

"P! Are you alright?" Usagimodoki asked.

Noiz was just staring blankly at the floor.

"P! Noiz! P!" Usagimodoki tried to call the attention of Noiz and when it did. Noiz immediately took out his coil.

"Ahh... bruder! What seems to be the problem?" Noiz called on to Theo.

"I'll be earlier that I expected to be." Noiz answered.

"Huh? What happened?"

"I blew it."

"What?"

"I'll tell you the details when I get back.

The next day, Noiz immedately went back to Germany. He left without a word. 

Days had become weeks and weeks had become months. They didn't try to talk things through. Actually both of Noiz and Aoba continued on their lives without talking to each other what had happened. There were constant times that they would look at each other coils and hope that the other would call them but it never happened. They wanted to call each other but they didn't, they were afraid of getting hurt any further.

Noiz still continues to work hard at his family's job, he gets praises from everyone who works there and he's been slowly recognized by his father as a worthy son for their company. And of course Noiz would work hard but he didn't let the stress to get too much of him because he knows that it would worry someone.  
While on the other hand, Aoba was able to get his old job back and is now happy living his life. He often stays at Koujaku's house whenever his Granny was out with her friends.

Aoba and Koujaku's relationship had been getting stronger and stronger as well. Sometime they would think that they're more than friends but they didn't do anything other than holding hands. 

"What's wrong Koujaku?" Aoba wondered as he looked at his best friend.

"It's nothing... I mean.. I've been thinking..." Koujaku responded.

"Huh?"

"It's been a while now and that.. I've been wondering... Are we still really friends?"

"What do you mean of course we are!" Aoba laughed as he answered Koujaku's question.

"I don't mean that! Aoba, do you love me?"

Aoba was surprised, speechless to be exact.

"I know it's been hard on you but... do you think it's time to move on? I promise you that I won't try to hurry things. You don't need too." Koujaku promised.

Aoba still remained silent and tried to analyze things and said, "Koujaku... I..."

\----

In Germany. Noiz and Theo were as usual busy but this time it's busier than before since it's almost December.

"Wow one more week to go and it'll be December already." Theo remarked as he looked at the calendar.

"Yeah time sure fly so fast." Noiz replied.

"Bruder... aren't you...." as Theo tried to talk to Noiz about his current situation.

"Sorry Theo but I still need to talk to father." Noiz interrupted him and left.

"You know, that you can't run away from this bruder...." Theo sighed as he continued to work.

Noiz walked a few stalls of office desks and went to his father's office.

*knock* *knock*

"Who is it?" his father asked.

"It's me Wilhelm." Noiz responded.

"Oh, Wilhelm! Come in! Is there something you want to talk about?"

"Yes, actually... it was what we talked about a few months ago..."

"So you finally agree?"

"Yes... *sigh* I'll agree to the arrange marriage."

-End of Chapter 9-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for making Noiz and Aoba a little bit different from their character >.


	10. I'm Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz and Aoba continued their lives when they broke up. Noiz realizes that it was probably for the best that they broke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the support, kudos and comments! They really helped me ^^
> 
> BTW this might be my last or second to the last update until June.

Chapter 10: "I'm Sorry"  
A few days later, in Noiz's family house.

"I can't believe that you're going through with this." Theo remarked as he sighed. "I thought that you were going to fix things between you and Aoba-san!" Theo was really worried, he was beginning to shake his head from left to right as a sign of distress. 

Noiz was just standing there grooming himself infront of the mirror.

"Why didn't you tell me about this? When did father forced you to this?!" Theo expressed his frustrations at Noiz but it seems that Noiz was still busy with something else. "And of all times for me to know is just an hour before meeting you eledge fiancee? Why are you not talking bruder?!" Theo looked at Noiz's eyes with so much anger and distress. "Are you really happy about this?"

Noiz looked Theo, sighed and said, "You don't need to worry about anything. I have planned things out."

"What are you saying?" Theo asked, sat down and calmed himself down.

"I'll get Aoba back and I mean it, it's December already. I can assure you that there'll be a Christmas miracle." Noiz smirked and walked out the door.

"What does he mean by that?" Theo wondered.

\---

Noiz walked calmly around the hallway and took deep breathes. He then remembers how he got into this predicament.

(flashback, this happened around the time where Aoba went missing)

*knock* *knock*

"Your secretary told me that you want to see me." Noiz said as he peek through the door.

"Wilhelm! Glad that you can come! Come in!" His greeted him and directed him to the chair in front of him.

"What is it that you want to talk to me about?" Noiz asked directly.

"Come on now! Don't be in such a hurry." his father replied and tried to make the conversation livelier.

"If you have time to waste, then good for you but I still have a lot of paper works to do."

His father sighes in dicontentment and begins to talk, "Wilhelm... what's your relationship with your so called friend, Seragaki Aoba?"

"?! Where did that all come from? Why the sudden interest?"

"It's not a sudden interest, I've found it weird ever since Theodore talked back at us when we discussed your relationship with him.Theodore is a good and honest child, he would never disrespect or talk back at us like that. He never did. But when you and that Seragaki boy visited us, he just suddenly became savage."

"Hey don't talk about Theo like that!"

"It's good that you two are close with each other. I mean, when I was your age, I was very close with my younger brother as well, that's why I took over the family company so that he wouldn't have to be bothered by something like this."

"What are you trying to say here?"

"What I'm trying to say is that you need to get married! It's a disgrace to the family that you're not the only one who's engaged here! Don't you know that it could harm Theodore's reputation as the company head! That his older brother is staying with another man! who had no political or business background?! Just what is he to you?!"

All the bushing that his father threw at him, he endured it all. But whenever it comes to Theo or Aoba, he couldn't help but to stand up for them. 

"Why are you so fixated with this whole reputation thing anyway?! You're not the one who's getting hurt here."

"As far as I remember this is a family company! I share the same name as you two! so if you mess up I get ridiculed by the other companies! Just remember you're suppose to be the head of this company, I'm lucky that you left this place and let Theo take over."

When his father said, Noiz just became very angry. He really want to smack some sense into his father but... he stopped. He knows that if he'll hit his father, he'll only get more insults from his family so he took deep breathes and calmed down.

"Aoba has no special relation to me ok? He's just a friend that I feel indebt to that's why I promised him a job at the company. Theo understood that Aoba is having a hard time adjusting here, that's why he couldn't stand you two disrespecting a man who's just trying to make an earnest living. That's all." Noiz confessed as he stood up to make a point.

His father was silent, he looked at Noiz's eyes to see if he was hiding something. Finally, his father broke his silence, "Is that so? Then I have a deal with you Wilhelm. If you want to help your friend get a secure job in this company, you need to be engaged to one of the daughters of my business friends. And if you don't I will tell immigration that you're harboring an illegal alien and I'll make sure to deport that Seragaki boy back to Japan and not to return to Germany anymore."

"You can't do that!"

"Oh yes I can. The head of the Foreign Affairs was once my classmate and a very close associate. So it would be easy for me to ask a favor."

"Tsk...." Noiz clicked his tongue and sat down again. "Shit! Shit! This can't be happening!" Noiz thought.

"And also if you tell this to your mother or brother. I won't hesitate to take down that Seragaki boy. Got it?" his father threathened.

"Ye...yes." Noiz admitted defeat. "Just give me sometime to think things through. At least give me a deadline until December."

"Ok then. Until then keep your mouth shut at any cost." his father agree. "That would be all, you can go back to your office now."

"Ye...yes...." Noiz replied, stood up and left with his head down.

\-----

Going back to the current situation, Noiz was heading to the family living room. When he opened the door, there he saw his parents talking to the girl's parents. It seems that both parties are enjoying each others company but not him.

"Wilhelm! You finally came. Sit down." his mother called out and offered a seat.

"Guten tag." Noiz greeted the other party and sat down. He looked at the girl and the girl looked back at him. Then both of them looked away from each other.

"Oh my, they're quiet shy. Aren't they?" Noiz's mother commented with a little giggle.

"I think we should give them a little space." the girl's father suggested and stood up.

"I think you're right." Noiz's father agreed and stood up as well. Both of their parents left the living room slowly.

"So what's your name?" Noiz asked and took a sip of tea.

"It's...." the girl answered.

Then the two of them talked to each other. They got along with each other and tour around Noiz's family house. 

During evening....

"It was very nice to know you Wil... ah! I mean Noiz!" the girl said and smiled.

"Heh.... don't get so full of yourself kid!" Noiz teased the girl.

Both of them laughed and looked at each other.

"It's not going to happened isn't it?" the girl asked.

"No, I'm sorry." Noiz apologized.

"It's alright. I'm actually glad that we're not going through with this. After all we're just in the smae position. Our parents force us to get married to each other but in the end we will not be happy about it, the only ones that are happy is our parents and their associates."

"Yeah you're right. That's why we get along so well with each other. I'm glad that we can become friends."

"Same here." the girl responded and both of them shook hands. "Oh by the way Noiz! Make sure that you'll make the person you love happy." she remarked and left.

"Yeah I will...." Noiz answered with a smile and went back to his room.

\--- 

While at the other hand, Aoba was currently waiting for Koujaku at his house. His grandmother was not there since she had a neighborhood committee meeting.

"Hmph.... it's so boring..." Aoba complained as he sighed. "I got off work early thinking that Koujaku wouldn't be working now but it seems that I was wrong."

"If you want to take off your mind on waiting why not clean the house?" Ren suggested.

"Ren... you know that Granny likes to clean the house. She would often get mad at me wheneve she sees me helping her clean."

"That's probably because you cause more things to clean rather than to help in cleaning."

"Eh?! Ren! Don't try to be like that! Hahaha" Aoba replied as he fluff up Ren's fur. Then he noticed something at the corner of the counter. "Hmm... I haven't seen that jewelry box from before. I wonder if Granny got herself a new bling." Aoba commented as he held the jewlery box on his hand.

"Aoba, I don't think that would be a wise thing to do." Ren warned. "Tae-san might get angry at you for opening that."

"Don't worry! I'll just take a peak." Aoba reassured and slowly opened the jewelry box.

When he opened it, he was surprised to sonly see a necklace with a ring on it.

"Hmm... I wonder if Granny used to wear this." Aoba wondered as he look around the ring.

"Aoba, there's an inscription inside the ring." Ren mention.

"Really?" Aoba asked and looked for the inscription. A few seconds of looking, he then saw it. "Me..ine... Lie..be...Aoba?!" he tried to read the inscription. "Wait! This is mine?!"(A/N: the whole inscription says: Aoba, Meine Liebe. Aoba saw his name last.)

 

"It's probably from Noiz." Ren answered.

"No way! The ring is too small for me and besides.... the style... seems to be so fancy for me..." Aoba tried to deny it but he ended up blushing. "What does it even say?"

"Aoba, Meine Liebe. Means 'Aoba, my love'."

"?! Ren! Don't say stuff like that!" Aoba exclaimed as he hide his embarassed face.

"But I just translated what you asked." Ren reason out.

"Aoba! I'm here!" Koujaku shouted from the outside.

When Aoba heard Koujaku, he was surprised and begun to panic. He quickly hid the ring back to the jewelry box and put it back to where it belongs.

"Koujaku! You came so suddenly, that it surprised me!" Aoba said and let Koujaku enter their house.

"What do you mean surprised? Were you hiding something from me?" Koujaku asked and looked at Aoba closely.

"Eww... Don't get so close to me you Hippo!" Aoba replied as he tried to stop Koujaku from getting too close to him.

Koujaku laughed and withdrew, he quickly headed to the kitchen and sat down.

"So when's dinner going to start?" he asked.

"You know sometimes it makes me wonder if you only go here for the food." Aoba retorted and starts to put on the food out the table. "I know that I'm not as good as Granny when it comes to cooking but I hope you'll like it!"

"Of course I will! After all you made it." Koujaku flirted.

"Whatever hippo!" Aoba hid his face as he was finish putting food on the table.

"No I'm serious! This looks delicious!" Koujaku said and put his hands togther. "Thank you for the meal."

Aoba did the same thing and both of them eat dinner together.

\----

Going back to Noiz's situation. He was back on his own apartment. It seems that the girl explained to both his and her parents that they don't want to go through the wedding.Both of the parents were surprised and gave them more time to think things through. So in a way Noiz was able to dodge getting married for a little while and he considers this as a win.

"P! What are you doing?! What are you doing?" Usagimodoki asked as it jumped at Noiz's shoulders.

"Well.... I'm packing Aoba's stuff." Noiz answered and prepared a box for it. "Although he rarely uses his room, he still put his important stuff in there and since we're officialy broke up I might as well return his stuff back, although it's been months already."

Noiz entered Aoba's room, it was tidy but because it wasn't used that much. It had a dusts all over.

"Midori, let's start cleaning." Noiz said and took out the necessary cleaning materials.

"P! Roger! P!" Usagimodoki responded and leaped for excitement.

And so both of them started to clean, but in reality Noiz is the only one that cleans the room. Usagimodoki is just there for the support. A few minutes later....

"This is hopeless.... I think that I'll just call the cleaning agency tomorrow. They'll be the ones to clean this." Noiz said and threw the cleaning materials at the floor. He sat down at the edge of the bed and sniffed at the sheets. "It still has his scent...." he commented and buried his face on the sheets.

"P! Noiz, don't be sad! P!" Usagimodoki tried to cheer him up.

"I'm not sad! It's just that I realized that I really screwed up big time. That's all!" Noiz replied and sat up right. Due to his boredom, he opened the cabinet stand on the lamp.

When he opened it, he was surprised on what he saw. "No way!"

"P! What is it! What is it!?" Usagimodoki asked in curiosity.

"This is a cheque! For 2 million euros!" Noiz exclaimed in disbelief and when he look for the name it for his surprise grew. "This is issued for Aoba? What the hell is going on here?"

As he tried to make sense on what he just learned his coil rang and it was from Aoba. He hesitantly opened his coil.

"A..Aoba?.." Noiz said.

"Hell, that's going to happened! Sorry to disappoint you, kid." Koujaku replied.

"Koujaku?! What the hell are you using Aoba's coil?"

"Ahhh well... he's asleep right now you see." When Koujaku answered, Aoba was really asleep at his side, he brushed Aoba's hair. "Anyway, Aoba wanted to know if he had some stuff he left at your place, he was too shy to talk to you personaly so I told him that I'll do it."

"Yeah, he left some in my apartment. I'm actually planning to send it back some time."

"That's great! You can just deliver it here, he said that he'll pay for the delivery charges."

"No need, I'll take care of everything."

"*laughs* it's because of your attitude like that that your mother thinks of Aoba as a gold-digging whore!"

When Koujaku said this, he and Noiz realized something.

"Wait! What did you say?" Noiz wanted to clarify that.

"Ahh...Sorry but I think I go now bye!" Koujaku nervously repsonded and ended the conversation.

"WHAT THE HELL!?!?!!?" Noiz thought. "Now, my mom's on this problem. Seriously! This is just getting weirder and weirder." he added. He just couldn't handle the information that he got, it took him a while to process things and finally calmed down. "Ok, I need to clarify this to Koujaku tomorrow. I need to know if I heard it right. Oh man, I still can't believe this." he started to have another panic attack but he tried to calm himself down again and looked at the cheque he saw earlier. When he fully analyzed the check, he noticed that the cheque came from his mother. "Oh hell no!" Instead of panicking about it, he thought that there would be more cheques around. He searched for every inch of Aoba's room and saw five cheques. All inssued to Aoba and all came from his mother. "I really can't believe this!" What's worse is that the money offered got higher and higher. The highest offer he saw was around 10 million euros. He really just can't believe what he had discovered, he thought that Aoba was out of his parents clutches but it ended up him being bribed by his mother. Noiz broke into tears and said, "Aoba.... I'm so sorry.... I don't know what my parents told you... but I'm really sorry.... I think that you're better off without me...."

\---

(flashback, this happened before chapter 5, the one where Koujaku asked where Aoba got his bruise.)

Noiz grunts as he see Aoba was busy preparing his stuff.

"Come on Noiz! Don't be like that!" Aoba said in a cheerful tone.

"How can I be happy about it? I got two weeks worth of conference to attend to outside the country." Noiz complained and hugged Aoba.

"It's just for two weeks, we'll see each other then."

"But when I'll return. You'll still be at Midorijima."

"Well I guess you're right... but it'll be for a short while so don't worry." Aoba tried to comfort Noiz and he touched his nose. "We can always just talk each other via coil if you ever miss me."

"But it's different. I can't live without touching you for a day."

"Come on now, we all know that's not true.You'll be alright on your own, right?"

"Hmm... fine then but when we get to see each other again. I'll make sure that you won't be able to walk for a day."

"Don..don't talk like that you stupid erogaki!"

"Heh... well see you then." Noiz said, took his luggage away from Aoba, kissed him and left.

Aoba went to see him off and prays for his safe journey. A few minutes later, the doorbell rung. He went to see who it was, whe he saw the person outside, his face became sad and opened the door.

"He...hello... Ms. *insert Noiz's family name here*..." Aoba greeted as he opened the door.

"Hello, Seragaki Aoba-san." Noiz's mother greeted back with a smile.

-End of Chapter 10-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if i missed some words, wrong spelling or grammar. I can't believe that I wrote this chapter so fast! O_O!!
> 
> feel free to leave any comments or questions!


	11. Coffe, Milk or Tea?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koujaku and Noiz had a conversation. The same goes to Aoba and Theo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the support, comments and kudos you guys gave me ^^  
> and sorry for the very late update.  
> I hope you guys like this!

Chapter 11: "Coffee, Milk or Tea?"

At Midorijima, Aoba and Koujaku are walking down the street. 

"It's pretty cold now huh?" Koujaku asked.

"Yeah, I really can't believe that it's almost Christmas. Time sure flies by so fast." Aoba replied as rubbed his hands together for warmth. "It's almost been almost two months now...." he whispered. Koujaku couldn't help but wonder what Aoba murmured. They walked a few blocks later and arrived at Tae's house.

"I'll see you later then." Koujaku said as he waved good bye to Aoba.

"Yeah, see you later." Aoba replied, waved back and entered the house.

As Koujaku was going back to his place, he stopped by at the area where he opened his shop. He met some of his members there and had a little chat with them. They were planning to celebrate Christmas all together at a certain shop. They were busy talking and planning things out. After a few minutes of discussion, Koujaku decided to head out first.

"So I'll let you guys decide on the remaining things. Ok?" Koujaku pointed out and walked out of their turf. He looked at his coil and saw that someone texted him. After reading the message, he stopped and thought of what he will do. He let out a sigh, "I guess I'll be late then..." He then let go of his coil and changed direction to where he was going.

Few minutes later, Koujaku ended up walking on a cafe. A waitress welcomed him and entered the cafe.

"You didn't changed a bit muscle head!" someone shouted.

Koujaku looked around and saw Noiz sitting at a table waving at him.

"Damn brat, you really have a fancy way to hate you more every time I see you." Koujaku remarked and took a sit opposite to Noiz's. So both of them are looking at each other.

"Why the hell did you text me anyway?"

"I brought Aoba's stuff." Noiz replied.

"Geez, you could have just delivered it by mail. You don't need to include yourself in the delivery." Koujaku retorted.

"Haha very funny." Noiz sarcastically replied. "I have something important to talk to you that's why I worked hard to get this long vacation. Don't even try to run away from this situation." He looked at Koujaku's face with all seriousness.

Koujaku could feel the cold air around him, took a big gulp and prepared for the worse. "Ok then. I'll tell you anything you want." He surrendered and ordered the waitress that he will take an order. "In exhange.....You'll have to pay for everything that'll order here."

"Fine." Noiz agreed.

The waitress approached then and asked for their orders.

"I'll have a cup of gren tea and some rice cakes to go with it. And you can give him milk and cookies or something that could help him grow." Koujaku took an order as he returned the menu to the waitress.

Noiz was a bit annoyed on what Koujaku just said but he didn't mind it since he still has more important stuff to do. He told the waitress, "Don't mind the kimono idiot, I'll take a cup of coffee, two cubes of sugar with cream."

"Very well sir." the waitress replied as she rewrote their order and left.

"Coffee huh? Isn't that a bit strong for a bean sprout like you?" Koujaku asked.

"I usually drink coffee just to energize me when I'm working late. I guess you could say that I got used to drinking it." Noiz answered and looked at the box that he's planning to give. "Actually... Aoba is the one that used to make me coffee every morning. At first it tasted horrible *chuckles* but he didn't stop and it eventually became better." He left a small smile on face as he remembered the old times.

Koujaku was amazed, he saw on Noiz's eyes that he's love for Aoba didn't dwindle, NOT even a little. Koujaku's train of thought was stopped when the waitress handed them out their order. As he was going to take a sip of his tea, Noiz immediately ambused him.

"So are you two still friends or not?" Noiz immediately asked.

Koujaku was so surprised with the question that he spit the tea he drank. "Geez, could you have any better time to ask me that?" He told Noiz as he wipe his face with a couple of tissues.

"Hey, we're here to talk about Aoba. So I'm just getting the conversation started."

"Fine..." Koujaku sighed and told Noiz what he wanted to know.

\---

Meanwhile, Aoba and Koujaku were suppose to meet at a mall to buy Christmas presents but Koujaku texted Aoba that he'll be late for a bit. So Aoba was left alone on the mall and decided to roam around on his own. He saw a young man, possibly a foreigner, trying to ask for directions but he doesn't seem to know how to approach a person.

"Excuse me...." Aoba tried to approach the confused person.

"Ah! Ye-yes?" the man slowly turned around Aoba with a scared look.

Aoba blinked a few times to see if he was dreaming or not. The man that he was talking with seems to be familiar. "No..Noiz?" He asked caustiously.

"Aoba-san!" the person called out suddenly, his former scared/confused look has now become a cheerful/happy face. 

"Umm... I'm sorry I thought you were someone I knew." Aoba apologized.

"No, it's my fault. Bruder told me that you might not remember me." he replied.

"Bruder?"

"Yes, I'm 'Noiz's younger brother. My name's Theodore but you can call me Theo for short." 

"I see....Nice to meet you Theo! I'm Aoba. Though I guess you already know that." Aoba laughed and looked around. 

"Oh, I went here without my bruder knowing. Don't worry I know what happened to you two, that's why I'm here!" Theo reassured Aoba with a cheerful smile.

"Re...really?..."

"Yes! But it seems that it'll be impossible to talk here. Aoba-san do you know any cafes that's nearby?"

"Yeah.... If you want I can guide you to some famous ones."

"Great! Let's go. I'll take you for a treat!" 

"Wh....what?..."

And so the two went on a cafe that was near the mall, it was a small cafe, only a few people were there. They sat down at one of the tables that's near the rear side.

"Aoba-san I'm sorry for dragging you out in here."

"No, it's fine I was suppose to wait for my friend but it seems that he'll be late. So it's ok."

"Really?! Then if it's ok Aoba-san would you mind talk with me for a while?"

"Sure."

"But before that, let's get ourselves something to eat. I told you earlier that I would treat you, right?"

\---

Going back to Koujaku and Noiz....

"I see..." Noiz concluded as he tapped his index finger on the table.

"That's all I have to tell you but then... what are you going to do about it?" Koujaku asked.

"I...actually don't know...." Noiz confessed.

Koujaku was surprised. "Re...really?"

*sighs* "I think I need to plan this out first. The way you talk irritates me more than your confession."

"You damn brat!" Koujaku exclaimed and grabbed Noiz through his collar.

"So did you and Aoba 'slept' together?" Noiz changed the topic.

Because of that, it made Koujaku let go of Noiz.

"Why so sudden?' Koujaku nervously asked.

"Nothing, it just came into my mind that's all." Noiz responded. Actually, this had been in his head ever since they broke up. He wanted to ask this first but he wanted for the perfect time.

 

"We..we didn't do it... Actually...we've been wondering if we're realy lovers. I mean we held hands and all but when we try to do it for the first time....well... you could say that it didn't go as planned..." Koujaku explained. "I remember Aoba saying, 'I'm sorry but I can't do it.' and broke into tears. I guess he was still inlove with you."

"Yeah, he didn't even stop apologizing even though I told him that it was ok. Aoba eventually fell asleep because he cried too much about it."

"Then what's your relationship now?"

"We're back to being friends but it was a bit awkward first few days ago. I'm only here now as a support for Aoba. I mean, I've told you everything I knew so good luck on trying to win Aoba back." Koujaku said and stood up.

"Thank you...." Noiz appreciated the thought even though he knew that Koujaku's only supporting their relationship for Aoba's sake. But still, it bugged Noiz, he can't seem to believe Koujaku that he and Aoba are really back from being friends. The only way to confirm this was to ask Aoba.

Before Koujaku left, he told Noiz one last thing, "I don't know if it was stolen or not but I think you can find more evidence about it on Aoba's house, especifically on his room. I tried to look for it but I wasn't able to find it or rather I didn't have the chance to look for it. Maybe you can find it and clear this mess out." Then he left.

Noiz was overwhelmed on what he had learned from their short conversation but he determined to fix all of it.

"Repressed memories, huh? I guess I have no choice but to leave it as it is. It would be better for him to forget everything that had happened in Germany....." Noiz thought."Especially the abuses he got from my mother...."

\----

While on the other hand... Both Aoba and Theo are having a lovely conversation.

*laughs* "I can't believe that we've talked about this in Germany! I'm so sorry, you must find it annoying to repeat all of this conversations with me." Aoba apologized as he finished off his tea.

"No, it's ok. I can at least understand what my bruder had went through just so you two could talk again." Theo replied.

"But you know... I've given this a thought already...well... it's almost been two months now and I think that I'm ready..." Aoba stated.

"Really?!" Theo asked in excitement.

"Yeah... I think I'll give Noiz another chance." Aoba answered.

-end of Chapter 11-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pleas feel free to leave comments behind!  
> I really didn't have a time to proofread this so please tell me if i have some wrong grammar, missing words etc.


	12. Third Luck's the Charm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoba and Noiz got back together (yehey!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the very long update :( and unfortunately I don't think I can finish this on Noiz's birthday. (sorry about that)  
> anyway thank you for all the support, comments and kudos!They really help a lot ^^

Chapter 12: "Third Luck's the Charm"

After what had happened previously, Noiz decided to go back to the hotel to rest. When he was on his way, he was surprised to see someone sleeping at the side door of his hotel room. The one that was sleeping was no other than Aoba, so Noiz slowly approached him.

"..Aoba.." Noiz gently call out Aoba.

"..Ugh..?..." Aoba slowly blinked his eyes a few times and looked at Noiz. "You're finally here..." he said with a smile.

"What are you doing here? Does the old man even know you're here?" Noiz asked him. "No, first of all, how did you know that I was here?"

"Th..e...e.." Aoba tries to say 'Theo' but he was too drowsy to speak clearly.

"Are you trying to say Theo told you where I am?" Noiz guessed as he tried to wake Aoba.

"U..gg..h.." Aoba was not able to speak but he nodded back and forth.

"Ok, you seriously need to go back now. That muscle-headed guy might get worry, he told me that you two were supposed to meet this night." Noiz tried to wake up Aoba for the last time, but it didn't work. So as a last result he called Koujaku to come over.

"Noiz!...." Aoba suddenly shouted. "I...I'm... really sorry... I was waiting for you....I wanted to see you...and...tell you that I'm here to set things right...." Aoba was probably half-asleep when he said these but Noiz understood what he said. He came closer to the half-asleep boy and hugged him tightly into his arms, saying, "I was supposed to say that."

A few minutes later...

"Glad that you called me. No wonder he cancelled our meeting in the very last second. I'm surprised that he came all the way here." Koujaku said.

"Yeah, he's surprised me too." Noiz replied. He watched Koujaku trying to wake Aoba. "He's a heavy sleeper isn't he?"

"Yes, he is. It's impossible for him to wake up once he starts sleeping." Koujaku gave up on trying to wake Aoba as he sighed.

"He is just like a child." Noiz chuckled and looks at Koujaku slowly put Aoba on to his back and made sure that the sleeping guy won't fall down.

"Anyway, thanks for calling me. Tae-san might get worried if his grandson won't return immediately." Koujaku added.

"No." Noiz denied. "I'm supposed to say thanks to you."

"Huh?" Koujaku looked back at him.

"Thank you for everything until now, Koujaku." Noiz bowed down as a sign of gratitude.

"Wait...why so formal?" Koujaku took a step back out of embarassment.

"Who knows, maybe a miracle happened." Noiz answered, went inside his room and slowly shut the door.

Koujaku was left astonished and confused at the same. Wondering if Noiz was just joking or being sincere. After a few seconds, he just shrugged it off and left.

\---

When Noiz entered his room, he immediately took out his coil and contacted Theo.

"Why didn't you tell me that you followed me to Midorijima. Where are you now anyway?" Noiz asked worriedly as he scratched his hair.

"Ah bruder! You don't need to worry about me. You told me yourself that you're going to make a Christmas miracle. So I just wanted to see how you'll do it." Theo responded with glee.

"Geez... You don't need to go that far you know!" Noiz pouted. "Anyway you still didn't answer my question, Where are you?"

"Nowhere special~. Though I can say that Midorijima is a very different place that our little hometown, right?" Theo compliment.

"Yeah it is different." Noiz paused. "But it's also a very special place for me."

"It's nice that I get to see the place that you call home."

"Stupid. My home is anywhere as long as Aoba's with me."

"Ohh! You seem to be very happy today bruder."

"Of course I am!"

Then the two of them had a lovely conversation the entire night.

\---

The next day, early in the morning. Noiz was heading to Aoba's house. He knocked on the door, Tae was the one that opened it.

"Good Morning, I'm here to see Aoba." Noiz greeted while bowed down as a sign off respect.

"Hmph." Tae grunted, looked back and went inside their house. "You know that it's a bit early. That boy won't wake up until it's almost lunch time."

"I know." Noiz replied, took off his shoes and went inside the house as well. "But I'm not here to see him alone. I also came here to talk to you."

"Huh? What do you want to talk about?" Tae seems to be intrigued because she looked at Noiz with her eyebrows rising.

"Well..." Noiz starts to explain his motive.

A few moments later... (More like few hours later XD). Aoba managed to wake up. Activated Ren, got up and yawned.

"Morning Aoba." Ren greeted.

"Morning." Aoba greeted back as he slowly stretched his body. He then suddenly stopped as he remembered something.

"Is there something wrong?" Ren tilted his head and wagged his tail.

"No no no!" Aoba protested and hid himself in his pillow. "I can't believe it! Yesterday... I...I... I immediately went to Noiz's hotel room without thinking things through! It's so embarassing! I ended up sleeping while I was waiting! I don't remember what happened last night, did I went back on my own? Or someone helped me?" Aoba thought, his face was flash red and he kept on thinking what had happened last night. "Oh no... I know that something happened! I can feel it! I  don't know if I can face Noiz normally... I'm so embarassed!" Aoba now begins to roll all over his bed.

"AOBA! IF YOU'RE AWAKE, GET YOUR LAZY ASS DOWN HERE!" Tae shouted.

Aoba had to stop what he's doing and immediately went down to the dining area.

"Coming Gran-" before Aoba could even finish what he is saying, he noticed that someone else was sitting on the dinner area.

"No-Noiz?!" Aoba flustered as he saw Noiz.

"Hey, took you a while to wake up." Noiz said as he looked at him.

"Granny! What is he doing here?!" Aoba asked panicky.

"Don't be rude to the guest. Just sit down and eat!" his grandmother scolded him and sips at her hot tea.

Aoba sighed and sat down beside Noiz. It was a bit awkward for Aoba, he really wanted to ask Noiz what had happened last night but he was too embarassed to even look at him. So the whole time they ate, it had an awkward silence around the area.

Tae was the one who broke the silence, "Aoba, if you two are done eating, clean the table and wash the dishes. I'll be going now."

"Huh? Why in such a hurry?" Aoba wondered.

"What do you mean 'why'?! I was supposed to have a meeting in the neighborhood committee, that why!" Tae shouted and left.

"Ehh??" Aoba was left with confusion as he saw his grandmother leave. He looked backed at Noiz, who was just calm about the situation.

"Oh crap.. I'm all alone with Noiz... What should I do?" Aoba thought of a way to get out of the house or at least try to get away from Noiz from a while. "Wait! What am I saying? I told his younger brother that I'll give him another chance, if I'll leave now it would be disrespectful. Right? " Aoba continued to think things through.

"You shouldn't be thinking so hard." Noiz pointed out.

"Huh?"

"I know that this might be awkward with the whole 'we broke up' thing. But I'm not forcing you to go with me again." Noiz took a deep breath. "Last night you came into my hotel room saying that you want to set things right. But I'm here to tell you that nothing's wrong with you or with our relationship. I'm the one that needs to straighten things up with myself."

"What are you saying? I'm the one who broke up with you. So at least I'm half guilty as you!"

"No, you're not."

"How can you say that?! You're brother told me that you've been busy working just so you can get a vacation and I..." Aoba was planning to explain his feelings but he ended up crying. "It's not fair to blame everything to yourself! Just because I lost my memory, it doesn't mean that I am excused to treat you like a stranger."

"But then it was my fault. If only I told you about us from the very beginning. No, if I just set aside my work to look for you earlier. Then we wouldn't had that incident. I was just being self-centered. " Noiz put his hands on Aoba and tries to comfort him. (A/N: he's refering to the part where he almost raped Aoba.)

"Noiz...why are you saying this? *sobs* I don't understand! *sobs* I said some horrible words to you back then... and yet..*sobs* You're still willing to accept me....What did I do in the past to deserve your unconditional love?" Aoba starts to question Noiz's love for him.

Noiz slowly moves closer to him and instead of holding him to calm down. He hugged Aoba tightly and said, "It's ok if you don't know anything. So don't cry! " Noiz hugs Aoba tighter and closer to him "I'm willing to tell you everything about our relationship and this time I promise you that I won't hide anything from you, So don't ever try to question about us again! And if you will give me this chance... then... I will show you why I love you so much." He slowly approached Aoba's face closer and closer until their noses are touching to each other, Noiz wanted to kiss him but he wants to take things slowly or else he'll screw things up. So instead of kissing Aoba he just wiped down his tears and stood up.

"Noiz wait!" Aoba shouted as he held on Noiz's hand to stop him from leaving. "Please... don't put all the burden on yourself. I'm here for you now. That's why if you need any comfort, just come to me."

Noiz held the hand that was holding him, smiled, looked at his eyes and said, "Don't worry. From this point on I promise that I'll make all the right decisions." He puts Aoba's hands down and kissed them. "This is the only thing that I can do now... I hope that this will suffice."

When Noiz kissed Aoba's hand, Aoba can feel that his heart skip a beat. "Wh..what are you doing?!"

"Hmm... Who knows?" Noiz tried to annoy him. Aoba blushed which made Noiz want to annoy him more. "You're really cute when you blush."

“Hey get back here!” Aoba shouted.

Noiz was already at the door, he stopped to put on his shoes. After doing so, he looked at Aoba and smiled. “I guess I’ll see you later.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t I tell you already?” Noiz paused. “That from this day onward, I’ll make you fall in love with me again.” Noiz added as he walked out the door.

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Noiz smiled when heard Aoba say this, instead of leaving. He turned back to Aoba and asked, “If you want… we can start now.” He reached out his hand to Aoba. “I hope you’re not busy today.”

Aoba giggles. “Not at all.” He then took Noiz’s hand. “But can it wait for a while? I still have to do the wash the dishes and lock the door.”

“I’ll help you so that it will be faster.” Noiz suggested and the two started to wash the dishes. While they were doing the dishes, they were talking about how they coped up with their break up.

“I’m really sorry for leaving without a word. I know that I running away would make me guiltier on my actions but I was afraid of getting rejected anymore. So I thought that it would have been best to not see each other for a while.” Noiz talked as he washes the dishes. Then he gives the washed plate to Aoba to be rinse and dried off.

“And yet you’re here again…” Aoba said. “You know you’re braver than you think. You say that you’re afraid of getting rejected and yet here you are, trying to fix things.”

“Heh… You’re giving me too much credit.”

“No I’m not.” Aoba protested. “You‘re the type of person who doesn’t give easily, no matter how many times you fall, you always get up….. and well…. That’s what I like about you….”

“Really?” Noiz let out a small chuckle.

“Ye-yeah.”

“I see…” Noiz stopped washing the plate and shifted his head to Aoba. Slowly he pushed his lips towards him.

“!” Aoba was surprised at what Noiz did. “What are you doing? I thought you’re taking things slowly?!”

“But I am. Do you really think I just want to kiss you? I want to do so many things with you right now but I’m just stopping myself.”

When Aoba heard this, his face became unexpectedly red. “What the hell?! Just stop talking and continue on cleaning those plates!” Aoba ordered Noiz as he hurriedly wipe the plates out of embarrassment.

“So are you still up for it?” Noiz asked and continued to clean.

“Huh?”

“You know, us going out after this.”

“Su—sure.”

“Nice.” Noiz picked up his pace quickly so that they could finish fast. After doing the chores they immediately went out on their date. They went to just a common café, Noiz wanted them to go somewhere popular but Aoba protested and said that common places are better than expensive ones. Noiz told Aoba everything about them. How they went to Platinum Jail, how they sneaked inside Oval Tower, how their loved flourished, how Noiz left him for three months after their rhyme fight and came back to get him. And how they live their lives in Germany.

“That’s pretty much it.” Noiz concluded and takes a sip of his coffee.

“O-ok… I might have a hard time to process all of this but are you sure you’re not hiding anything else from me?” Aoba asked out of curiosity.

Suddenly Noiz remembers about what he saw when he cleaned Aoba’s room and what Koujaku told him. He just shook his head and looked at Aoba, “No, I don’t have anything else to hide. Even though my family is a little bit cold towards me, you were always there to comfort me so it doesn’t really bother me.” Noiz has already decided that he won’t cause any more harm to Aoba and if he tells him about the harsh treatment Aoba gets from his parents, it would only cause Aoba to have a mental breakdown. Noiz has researched about the whole ‘repressed’ memory thing and he even talked to psychologies and experts about this. And despite his researches and advices he got, he still had the choice to follow it or not. And of course, he choice not to tell Aoba. Noiz decided that he’ll tell Aoba about it if he is ready.

The date ended into a success, both Aoba and Noiz left with a satisfaction on their faces and it wasn’t the last date they had. They actually continued to meet each other ever since. After Aoba’s job at Heibon, he would immediately went to the place where he and Noiz had decided to meet. It was a nice and refreshing moment for the two of them, it was almost Christmas and they could see a lot of lovers walking around, they feel in place. Their love is getting stronger and stronger day by day.

A few days later, it was the time where Noiz waited for a long time.

“Are you sure you want to continue?” Noiz asked.

They were in the hotel room where Noiz was staying. He was on top of Aoba, both of them were on their own bathrobes.

“Ye..yeah…. I think I’m ready.” Aoba answered.

“Don’t blame me if you complain that you can’t walk tomorrow.”

“Shut up!” And then they started to kiss each other, they exchanged kisses and body heat. They did more than that and went even further on that night. After doing it, they were both lying on the sheets close to each other.

“Aoba, there’s something I want to give you tomorrow.” Noiz mentioned as he looked at Aoba.

“What is it?” Aoba asked.

“It’s a secret. Just see me tomorrow around 8 in the evening. Same place.”

“Ok.” Aoba agreed, the both of them cuddled and fell asleep.

The next day, around 7 in the evening. Noiz was preparing himself for the surprise that he’s going to give Aoba. He got something from his pocket. It looks like a small box, perhaps it’s a jewelry box. He inserted it back to his pocket and remembered the time when he Tae talked.

\---

“I know that you’re against me, no, our relationship. But I know better now, I promise you that I won’t let anyone, not even my mother hurt Aoba anymore.”

“Hmph! You seem confident but I doubt that.”

“I can assure you that I’m not lying. I will do my best to make Aoba happy, I promise you that I won’t make him cry anymore. And besides…. It was my fault… if only I was paying more attention on him rather than my job, he wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Tae can see the seriousness on Noiz’s eyes and that she can see that he really is repenting for what he did. She sighed and walked out the dining area a bit. And when she returned, she gave Noiz the jewelry box. “I doubt that Aoba would be happy if he see you blaming yourself for everything. You know when he showed me this ring he was very happy about.”

“No way…”

“It was the only thing that wasn’t stolen. It seems that he protected it with his life. You understand now Noiz? You’re not the only who’s struggling with your relationship, Aoba feels the same way. So I hope that you two will fix this whole mess together.”

“Thank you Grandmother.” Noiz appreciated what Tae has done for him, he thought that she hated him for being neglectful towards his grandson but now Noiz realized that she was just looking out for the both of them.

\---

Going back, Aoba was already at the place where he and Noiz agreed to meet. It was snowing already and it’s pretty cold outside. Aoba looked at his coil to see what time it was.

“It’s almost 10…. He’s not yet here…” Aoba tried to warm himself by wrapping his arms around himself.

“Aoba…” someone called out.

“Noiz?!” Aoba thought that it was Noiz but when they got closer to each other he realized that it was Koujaku.

“Koujaku… what are you doing here?” Aoba wondered.

“Idiot! I should ask you the same thing! Look at you!” Koujaku scolded Aoba as he put his scraf around him. “How long have you been waiting here?”

“For about 2 and a half hours now…. Noiz told me meet him around 8 but I got here earlier thinking that he might arrive early…..”

“Aoba…. Look at you! If you stay here any longer you could get frostbite.” Koujaku worried tries to convince Aoba to leave. “He’s not coming Aoba.”

“But…”

“Aoba, are you really planning to wait here until he shows up?”

“Yes, he told me that….” Before he could even finish saying his sentence Koujaku took his arm and said, “He’s not coming.”

The second time Aoba heard it, tears begun to fall from his eyes. He knows that Koujaku is not trying to break them up, he was just looking out for him. Aoba knew that Noiz won’t come when he waited for an hour but he still waited for him because Noiz told him that they would meet each other.

“Aoba, let’s go back.” Koujaku finally manages to convince Aoba and they begin to walk.

Aoba was still crying, looking back to the area where he waited for almost 3 hours, he whispered, “He promised me that he would come…..”

-End of Chapter 12-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> phew... (I really want to join the Noiz week in tumblr but i still need to settle my enrollment for the next semester =.=)   
> I don't know if I can update daily but I will try to update every 2-3 days ^^  
> btw comments and kudos are always welcome!


	13. Christmas Eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz and Aoba celeberate christmas eve together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for the kudos, comments and support! I followed the advises of two wonderful people ^^

Chapter 13: Christmas Eve

It was early in the morning in Midorijima Police Station. Noiz was on one of cells until one of guards approached his cell and opened it.

"Hey kid, your bail's here. You can get out now." He announced.

Noiz walked out from the cell not saying a word and immediately headed outside.

"I'm so glad that you're alright, bruder!" Theo was happy to see his older brother looking well despite of some bruises on his face. He just looked passed that and was very happy to see Noiz not badly hurt, Theo immediately hugged him out of relief.

"Woah, calm down Theo!" Noiz tries to stop his younger brother from hugging him but in the end he let Theo hug him. Noiz was also happy that Theo was worried about him.

"Bruder, why didn't you run away?" Theo couldn't help but ask.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, the fight that you were caught in. I mean I, myself don't know what had fully happened but you can just run away, right?"

"Oh yeah about that. Seriously, those Ribsteez are getting out of hand. I was just on my way to meet Aoba and those weak-ass players just blocked my way and said that I was trespassing their territory, so they tried to teach me a lesson but in the end they got beaten by me alone. And it just so happened the police were on patrol and I was the only one who got caught. Talk about bad timing."

"Then why didn't you run?!"

"Running away would only mean that I am the same as them, I'm a changed person now and I know better that's why I let the police catch me."  
Theo sighed and patted Noiz's shoulder. "Seriously bruder, you almost gave me a heart attack when you called me and needed bail."

"Sorry about that but the police took all my belongings and told me that I can only have one phone call. I don't want Aoba to worry about small matters like this. Though, I could just pay the bail myself."

"Bruder... I don't think that's how it works." Theo tried to correct his brother but he, himself doesn't know how the whole process works since he never had been to jail or even think of going to one would happened. "Anyway, we should get those wounds treated. Let's go to the hospital."

"Sorry but that'll have to wait."

"Why?"

"I still need to see Aoba, I was suppose to meet him last night. I need to explain myself." Noiz quickly walked towards house of Aoba. Theo tried to stop him but he couldn't stop Noiz. He was in front of the house, he was suddenly grabbed by Koujaku.

"Hey, be happy that I didn't rat you out."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't tell Tae-san the real reason why Aoba went home freezing. I just told her that you two cancelled your meeting and that I was suppose to meet up with him instead and that I forgot to tell him that we were suppose to meet at my place instead outside." Koujaku explained.

"And she believed you?" Noiz doubted.

 "Miraculously yes, I was nervous when I told her my lame excuse but she believed me." Koujaku tried to convince Noiz that he was telling the truth. "But seriously though, you could have told Aoba that you couldn't come. He would have waited for you until he would collapse at the middle of the night you know."

"I know that, that's why I'm going to explain to him what had happened." Noiz told Koujaku with determination and went inside the house.

"Jeez... that guy." Koujaku brushed off his hair and went inside as well.

\---

"It seems that your fever is higher than I thought. I guess I can't leave you to take care for yourself." Tae mentioned and removed the thermometer from Aoba's mouth.

"I'm sorry Granny.... I caused you this much trouble." Aoba apologized.

"Don't worry about it, your health is more important. Just sleep tight."

"Ok...." Aoba slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Tae put a piece of wet cloth over Aoba's forehead and left his room. When she was going down stairs, she saw Noiz panting at the living room.

"Noiz? What are you doing here? And what happened?" Tae was confused as to what had happened to him.

"It doesn't matter now. Is Aoba upstairs?" Noiz answered.

"He-hey Tae-san. Sorry for barging unannounced." Koujaku added.

"Hmph, you people are always coming here unannounced, I've already got used to it. But don't make too much noise, Aoba's sleeping right now."

"How is he?" Koujaku asked.

"He got a high fever but other than that he's fine." Tae replied. "It's a good timing that you two arrived, do me a favor and buy the things that are listed here for me."

"HUH?! why?!" the two exclaimed in unison.

"That's because my grandson is sick and I can't leave him alone, that's why!" Tae shouted in an annoyed tone.

"But wouldn't it be better if you...." Noiz tried to suggest something but Koujaku pushed his elbow at him. "Hey what's that for?" Noiz whispered.

"Idiot, you can already see that Tae-san angry, if you want to talk to Aoba, I suggest you do what she said." Koujaku whispered back.

"Good idea." Noiz agreed. He then took the list from Tae and immediately headed outside dragging Koujaku with him.

"Seriously those two...." Tae sighed and went to the kitchen.

\---

"Hey slow down!" Koujaku complained and stopped Noiz from walking too fast. "I know that you're eager and all but could you consider trying to slow down?"

"You told me yourself that Aoba waited  for me and now... he got sick because of me. Theo was right I should have just run away." Noiz sighed and sat at the side of the street.

"What happened anyway? And who's Theo?" Koujaku asked.

"But I guess I could still give it to him as a Christmas gift." Noiz mumbled.

"What gift?" Koujaku asked again but Noiz just continued on mumbling to himself. "Dude, seriously. If you dragged me here, you could at least try to pretend to listen to me." 

Noiz stood up and looked at him. "I know what I'm going to do now."

"You seriously try to avoid me!" Koujaku shouted.

"Quit complaining old man, I'll tell you everything while we shop." Noiz took out the list and went to the market.

" _seriously why do I feel so drained whenever I talk to this brat?"_  Koujaku thought and followed Noiz.

After buying all the things that were listed, Koujaku and Noiz also wrapped up all their discussions.

"Do you think that would work?" Koujaku asked.

"Probably but in order for it to work, I need your help." Noiz answered.

"Really?! I might help if you bow down and kneel." Koujaku teased Noiz.

"Urgh! Forget it old man. I'll do it myself." out of irritation Noiz walked further away from Koujaku.

"Hey wait brat, I was just joking!" Koujaku chased down Noiz.

They went back to Tae's house and put all the things they bought to the kitchen.

"I'm surprised that you bought all of the things and you even paid for all of it. I'm impressed Noiz." Tae complimented.

"I don't mind paying for it. At least I'm more helpful than Koujaku." Noiz replied with a smirk on his face.

"Hey, I was the one that convinced you to do the shopping in the first place!" Koujaku protested and the two of them begun to argue. 

"Shut it you two! Don't you know that someone is trying to get a rest upstairs?!" Tae shouted and the two calmed down.

"Umm... Grandmother..." Noiz slowly raised up his right hand like a student.

"What is it?"" 

"If you like, I could take care of Aoba myself."

"Huh?" Tae's eyes widen.

"I heard from him that you were looking forward for the Christmas party at the neighborhood committee. I think that it would saddened him to know that you can attend to the party because of him."

Tae was silent, perhaps she was thinking on what she'll do next. Koujaku and Noiz shook heads at each other as a sign of agreeing with something.

"He's right Tae-san! I'm sure that Aoba would understand if you will go to the party." Koujaku added.

"But how can I trust you two into taking care of a sick person? You would go into a fight with each other if I'm not here to stop you." Tae pointed out.

"Well don't worry about that since I will be the one to take care of Aoba." Noiz said.

"What?!" Koujaku was surprised. "Like hell I would allow that!"

"But aren't you going to your team's party. It would be disrespectful if the leader of rib group would not attend his own team's Christmas party." Noiz smirked and tried to annoy Koujaku.

"Damn you brat!" Koujaku tried to start a fight but he saw that Tae was glaring at them so he stopped, immediately.

"So Noiz how can I be sure that I can leave my grandson into your care?" she asked.

"I'm capable of taking care of him, back in Germany when he got a fever I was the one that took care of him and besides, ever since I was a kid I'm already used to take care for myself." Noiz paused. "that's why leaving your grandson in my care won't be a problem."

Tae sighed and looked into his eyes. Sure enough she would allow Noiz to take care of her grandson, right? She still has some doubts about it but she can sense that Noiz was really serious when he told him about the whole 'taking care' thing. So in the end she just agreed to it. "Fine, I'll let you take care of Aoba."

"Yes!" Noiz jumped out of joy.

"But I won't leave until late in the afternoon, the party will start around evening. So I'll be staying here for a while."

"Um... yes of course."

"And as for you, you shouldn't you be going back home?" Tae glared at Koujaku.

"Ahh, yes of course! I should be going now! Bye!" Koujaku waved good bye to Tae and Noiz. As he was going out the door, he tapped Noiz's shoulder and whispered, "Don't screw this up."

"I know." Noiz replied.

\---

Aoba slowly opened his eyes, when he looked around he saw Noiz at the door. "No...Noiz?" Aoba tried to speak but his throat was dry.

"Wait a minute, I'll go and get you some water." Noiz stopped Aoba from getting up and went downstairs to get water. He then returned to Aoba's room, help him get up and drink help him drink the water as well.

"Thank you." Aoba smiled."How long was I asleep?"

"I don't know, when I came here, you were already sleeping." Noiz answered him while Aoba was still in his arms.

"I see... where's Granny?" Aoba slowly shifted his head to Noiz's chest.

"She attended the neighborhood committee christmas party." Noiz starts to brush Aoba's hair.

"Noiz, you're so cold." Aoba commented.

"Sorry about that, I just walked your grandmother out to their venue a few minutes ago. Don't worry I'll warm up a little." Noiz then begun to hug Aoba tightly into his arms. "After all your very warm."

Aoba smiled and said, "And you being cold feels good. It cools me down a little." He started cuddle with Noiz.

"I guess we can get something out of cuddling with each other."

"Yeah..." 

"Listen Aoba, I'm sorry about yesterday..."

"Don't worry about it, I know that you didn't mean to break your promise. It must hurt doesn't it?"

"Huh?"

"I mean those wounds you got in your face." Aoba traced his fingers to Noiz's now bandaged wounds. "And also... not being able to fulfill your promise."

Noiz felt happy that Aoba didn't get angry nor doubted him, he understood him and even felt worry seeing his current state. Noiz was really lucky that Aoba loved him dearly and undoubtedly. "Thank you so much..." Noiz whispered.

"Huh?" Aoba looked at him with a puzzled look. "What did you say?"

"Nothing..." Noiz puts his forehead on Aoba's forehead. "It seems that your fever is getting down." Noiz then slowly shifted his head and kissed Aoba's lips.

"! What do you think you're doing?!" Aoba was surprised and embarrassed at the same time.

"Heh..." Noiz smiled. "It's just that I really love you."

"Don't say something like that! It's so embarrassing!" Aoba pushed away Noiz and hid his face out of embarrassment.

"It seems that you're livelier now, I'm glad that you're fine now." 

"Of course I would be!" Aoba replied. "And besides.... it's because you're here...." he whispered.

"Did you say something else?" Noiz looked at him.

"No...no!" Aoba denied.

"If you say so, I'll go buy some food. I know that you're hungry now." 

"Wait, didn't granny leave some food behind?"

"She did but it's only small. We're aren't we going to celebrate Christmas together?"

"I guess you're right but I didn't buy you any gift."

"Don't worry about it, you feeling better  now is already a gift to me..... and that you didn't get mad at me for breaking my promise." 

"Of course I won't, You're not the only one who's in love here you know!"

"I guess you're right." Noiz kissed Aoba's cheek. "I'll be gone for a while so just rest, ok?"

"Ok."

Noiz returned with a cake and some delivered pizzas and pastas. He bought all of it to Aoba's room knowing that Aoba has not yet fully recovered. They both talked to each other, Noiz explained to Aoba what had happened to him and why he didn't show up.

"I'm sorry, I was just...." Noiz tried to apologize but Aoba stopped him.

"It's ok, I know that you only did what you think was right." Aoba smiled and held Noiz's hand.

"Thank you."

They ate the food that Noiz bought as they waited for the clock to him midnight. And when it did....

"Merry Christmas Aoba." Noiz greeted.

"Merry Christmas to you too Noiz." Aoba smiled and greeted Noiz.

"There is something I want to give you." Noiz quickly pull out something in his pocket. "Here."

Aoba was surprised to see a small jewelry box being handed to him.

"Umm... isn't this a bit too extravagant?" 

"No it's not." Noiz slowly opened the box. "I know that I gave this to you last Valentine's but I would like to return this to you."

"That ring... didn't Granny had that?"

"It belonged to you didn't it? But if you want I can just throw this away." Noiz said and tried to put the box to his pocket again.

"No, it's not what I want. It's fine." Aoba replied and took the box into his hand. "Did you have a ring that's similar to this?"

"Yes I have." Noiz answered and took out the similar ring. 

"Then this makes us an official couple isn't it." 

"No it doesn't." Noiz denied. "It makes us engaged."

"Eh?!" Aoba paused. "EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!????????"

"Why so surprised? We've been together almost two years now. Isn't it time to settle down?"

"But isn't that a bit too sudden?"

"No it's not. Actually that ring was suppose to be our engaged to be engaged ring and that I wanted to surprise you this Christmas with an engagement ring."

"Bu-but we can't get married.... I mean... not here anyway..."

"Who cares about that anyway? It's just a piece of paper. Our love can't be decided by just a piece of paper, even if we can't get married. We can still have our own wedding even if it's not officially recorded. Aoba, I love you and I have no intentions of letting you go. I want to make you happy. Isn't that what being married is all about? Togetherness and happiness? Don't you want to go back with me to Germany and live our lives there?"

"Noiz.... of course I love you! And don't ever doubt that." Aoba hugged Noiz. "I want to make you happy as well. I hope that I can make you feel the same way you make me feel."

Noiz hugged him back and said, "You've already did."

"Thank you...." Aoba tried to put on the ring but it didn't fit him. 

"You're suppose to wear it with a necklace. Here let me do it." Noiz told him, Aoba pulled up his hair and Noiz put the necklace around him.

"It's really pretty, have I ever told you that?"

"Yes, you did. A lot of times already." Noiz cuddled with Aoba as they watch the snow falling from Aoba's balcony.

"I love you Noiz." Aoba reached out to Noiz and kissed his neck.

"I love you too." Noiz returned the kiss softly to Aoba's lips. 

-End of Chapter 13-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if the chapter is a bit.... you know.... my head's feeling a bit out of place right now... so yeah...  
> comments, kudos and critiques are always welcome! ^^


	14. Christmas Miracle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a miracle happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for the support, kudos and comments!  
> (for those who read chap 14 ahead, I'm really sorry but I deleted the previous one and rewrote it D:)t  
> sorry if the update took longer than it was suppose to be U_U anyway here's the second to the last chapter hope you like it :D

Chapter 14: "A Christmas Miracle"

  
It was the 25th day of December and a lot of people are staying at home to spend Christmas with their families. But it was different for Noiz, it appears that he is hanging out at a certain cafe with someone else.

"So did you manage to get it?" Koujaku asked, took a sip of his hot tea and stared at Noiz.

"Yeah I did." Noiz answered and showed an envelope to him. Koujaku opened it and saw that there was cheque in it. "I really can't believe that my mother did this. The cheque is worth 20 million euros and it seems that she's serious about it."

"Then what are you going to do? Are you really planning to go back to Germany with Aoba?" Koujaku started to interogate Noiz. "If you two would go back, wouldn't it be just the same as before or maybe even worse." he added.

Upon hearing this, Noiz lets out a huge sigh." Actually, I've been thinking about it for a while now.... and well, I think that it would be better for us to stay here in Midorijima. We could use the money that my mother used to bribed him Aoba with as our living, I mean I still have tons of money when I work there as well and I can just be an information broker like before." Noiz paused, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. " But then.... if I leve Theo alone with my parents again, I'm sure that they'll put more pressure on him. Heck, I would even imagune them say something like 'don't be like your brother', 'you can't see him anymore', 'he's a disgrace into this family'. I also highly doubt that my father knows my relationship with Aoba and if he ever to find out about it, I'm sure that he'll storm right here and try to bring me back, not only that but he'll also try to hurt Aoba more than what my mother did to him."

"Wow, you've really thought about all of this. Huh?" Koujaku was amazed on how Noiz see the danger of doing something irresponsible. "You've really grown you know."

"Of course I did. It was all because of Aoba, you know." Noiz let out a small laugh. "And besides I still have a lot of things to settle there so I guess I really can't just stay here even if I want to." Noiz stirred his cup of coffee and drank a small portion of it." Damn it! Why things can't just go to the way I want it to be even just for once." he added with a tired voice.

"Listen Noiz, I know that you really want to talk to someone about this problem of your and that we also cleared things between us along the way but...." Koujaku tried to change the topic to lighten the atmosphere. "Is it really neccessary for us to meet early this christmas?"

"Heh... What's wrong old man? Did you party so hard last night that you still haven't recovered from the hang over? It's not early anymore you know, it's past noon already."

"You little brat!" Koujaku ruffled up Noiz's hair. He then sat properly and said, "But seriously though, if you can't take this much stress, wouldn't it be better to just give up?"

"Ohhh... are you really telling this to me or to yourself?" Noiz sat back. "I'm not trying to avoid the subject or anything but it seems to me that you're talking to yourself. You and I know that I love him more than what and that I will never give up for something like this. If I give up now, what kind of lover am I? After all we've come this far already." Noiz took out the ring in his necklace and looked at it.

Koujaku chuckled.

"Do you find it funny?" Noiz asked in an annoyed tone.

"No, it's just that I remembered Aoba saying something similar back then." Koujaku answered and told Noiz what had happened (continuation to chapter 6).

_"Wouldn't it be better if you two broke up?" Koujaku suggested. "It's not that I'm against you two or anything, it's just that.... It seems to me that you're the only one that's getting hurt and as your bestfriend, I can't stand to see you like this."_

_"How could you even say that?!" Aoba suddenly shouted as he stood up firmly. "Even though I'm being treated like this.... I can't leave Noiz alone! Even the thought of us being separated like this.It's just horrible, I love him and I have no intentions of leaving him, he went through a lot just for us to be together and I can't end it just because his mother found out about us."_

_"But Aoba, " Koujaku tried to calm Aoba down. "His mother was the one did this to you." he then touched Aoba's bruised cheek. "If I'm not mistaken, this is not the first time she did this to you isn't it? The more you stay there, the worse treatment you will get, even though you won't tell Noiz about this now, he will find out sooner or later and things will get worse than it is now. Think about this properly."_

_Aoba took Koujaku's hand away from his face and turned back, "I know that you're worried about me Koujaku, and I appreciate your support. That alone can already help me endure this trial." Aoba paused and looked back at Koujaku. "Thank you." He then smiled._

"And that's what he told me." Koujaku ended his story.

"I see." Noiz's is in obvious happiness of course. The way he heard how Aoba fought for their relationship not only from his mother but also from Koujaku really made him fall for

Aoba even more. "You can already see that both of us are serious about each other."

"I know..." Koujaku looked at the window. "Man... I should really just give up on Aoba....."

\---

"Wow! So you two are engaged now?" Theo happily asked as he looked at the ring that Noiz gave Aoba.

"Yeah... though, I'm a bit embarrassed that you can just say that so loud." Aoba replied.

"Why would you feel embarrassed anyway? It's suppose to be a joyous occassion. You know what we should celebrate!" Theo suggested.

"Wh-what?!" Aoba was in shock.

"Come on Aoba-san, let's go and buy cake for this celebration!" Theo took Aoba's arms and went on walking.

"What a minute Theo!" Aoba tried to stop him but Theo was just so happy for them, so Aoba just gave in and followed him. Theo stopped and looked back at him. "Aoba-san..... don't mind me asking this but... where can we buy some cake?"

Aoba laughed, "See, you're too excited that you do even know where to go. Come on, I'll take you to a famous cake shop." Aoba took Theo's hand and lead the way.

After buying the cake, they decided to go back to Aoba's house and wait for Noiz. When they were going back, they took the route where Koujaku's rib territory. There they saw some women arguing.

"Aoba-san, what's going on?" Theo couldn't help but wonder, yes he does speak and understand japanese but he couldn't really understand words that are way too complicated.

"It's ok, they're just arguing about Koujaku. It's a normal thing so let's just go." Aoba said and continued to walk. It was when one of the women pushed another girl that they start to fight each other physically.

Theo jumped in to try to stop them, " Everyone please stop!" he pleaded and try to separate the two women. But the other girl still fought back.

Aoba helped Theo and tried to pacify the two women but other girls joined in the fight.

"You stupid whore! You just want Koujaku because he's popular! I bet that you won't even love him if he's not famous." one of the girls shouted.

"Shut it slut! I know that you just want to sleep with him, that's why you're doting to him always." another one shouted back.

There are now more than four girls fighting over Koujaku and the worse part of it is that Koujaku's not yet even there! They were just probably waiting for him to open his shop.

"Please calm down." Aoba tried to hold one of the girls from fighting. He feels a little dizzy. _"What's wrong with me? I...I don't feel well._ " he seemed to have thought.

"Let go of me!" The girl screamed and hit Aoba by her elbow. Aoba fell to the ground probably because he used too much force to stop her from moving, the girl was able to get away from him. Aoba, who was now on the ground saw how women can be string if they want to. "Please...stop...." he begged as his head becomes to feel a little heavier.

"You social-climber!"

"Slut!"

"Gold-digger!"

Hearing the insults that the girls threw at each other, Aoba couldn't help but feel a little nauseated. His starts to hurt more and more. His vision becomes blurry and somehow starts to see hallucinations or rather some memory in his past. He could remember a middle-age woman that looks like Noiz beating him and saying hurtful words to him. This sudden flashback hit Aoba like a tidal wave. It was too sudden and too painful to remember something horrible like that or rather if was too painful for his brain to resurface so much memory in a short time. He couldn't comprehend what was going on that time, his head was ringing uncontrollably, his stomach hurts, his eyes are swelling from sudden tears and because of it, Aoba couldn't help but scream,

"Stop!!!!"

All the women and Theo stopped and looked at him.

"Please stop!!!!! I... I can't.....Please... This is too much....It hurts...." Aoba held himself as he screamed painfully.

"Aoba-san..." Theo tried to approach him but he was scared.

"What's happening to him?" one of the girls wondered.

"Should we call the police?" the other suggested.

"No!" Theo shouted. "Please don't. Call the hospital instead."

Aoba couldn't stand the pain and fell unconscious. Theo was surprised that Aoba stopped moving. "Please call the hospital quickly!" Theo begged as he held Aoba.

The women quickly took out their coil and called the nearest hospital.

" _what is that noise?.... is that Theo?...._ " Aoba thought, obviously he was half awake even though he can still see what's going on, his body seemed to have fallen asleep already. " _When did it all start?.... I...I couldn't even..."_ Aoba's consciousness now begins to drift further and further away from reality.

_My memory.... they're starting to come back to me now......_

_But why am I remembering this now? No, it's not that, of all things why am I remembering this?_

_It was around after Noiz and I celebrated Valentines Day, he went to work early and I was left alone in the apartment to study. I heard someone knocking in my door, I took a peek and saw that it was his mother, I don't know why but I felt a cold chill come down to my spine, Ren who was beside me wagged his tail and told me to open the door. I was hesitant at first, I took Ren into my arms put him into sleep mode and opened the door._

_"Good Morning, Mrs. (insert Noiz's last name). If you're looking for Wilhelm, he already went to the office." I told her._

_"I know that, I'm not here to talk to Wilhelm, I'm here to talk to you." she responded and forced her way inside the house._

_My senses are telling me something bad is going to happened, the anxiety is unbearable. If only Noiz was here.... he'll know what to do. "I'm sorry this is the only tea that's available here right now, I hope it's alright with you." I tried my best to be formal. I gave her a cup of tea and some cookies I baked earlier._

_"I don't mind, I will only be here for a while anyway." she told me as she sips the tea I gave her. "Your name is Seragaki Aoba right?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Then, Seragaki Aoba, I have one thing to ask you."_

_"What is it?"_

_"Are you in a relationship with my son?"_

_I was surprised at what she said, I shook my head and clarified what she said, "Pardon but what did you said again?"_

_"Don't try to deny it, I saw the kiss mark on your neck earlier."_

_"What?!" I immediately covered my neck._

_"I was only lying." she confessed. "But you just answered my question. Let me tell you one thing Seragaki Aoba, Wilhelm is only a young man, I don't know what reason why he wants to be with you but you and I know that having this kind of relationship is wrong. That's why I want you to break up with him, he has a reputation to uphold after all._ _" she hands out a cheque to me. "I don't know if this is how much Wilhelm pays you for your body but if you don't think it's enough I can still add....." before she could even continue to talk the slammed my hands on the table._

_"I didn't choose to be with him because of his money..... I love him because of his personality. That's why I'm sorry but I can't take that money."_

_"Hmph, you say that but aren't you just some gold-digger. The way how you act and look, you really came from some pathetic place." she stood up and begun to walk. "You can keep the money and don't think this is the last you'll see of me. Just be happy that I won't tell my husband about this because if you tell a word to Wilhelm, then let's just hope that you'll still be alive." after saying those threatening words, she left._

_I couldn't help but feel terrified, his mother now knows about us. I'm scared if the word would spread, I'm sure that Noiz's family would all blame this on him. I'm so useless, how did I let this happened._

_And so, what his mother said was true, she kept on coming to our apartment and try to bribe me with larger amounts of money and as usual I refuse, the more I refuse the more she got angry, sometimes she would even go to the point of hitting me just so I would break up with her son but I still refused. I didn't fight her back, I just stood there and took it, I know that fighting back would only worsen the situation. After she's done she would usually throw hurtful slurs on me but I just let it slide and try my best to act as if nothing happened in front of Noiz, I don't want him to worry about me, he's been through enough things already and that I want him to know that it's ok to rely on me, that's why I need to make him feel safe and at home whenever he's around. Of course I also didn't tell Ren about this but I think he's feeling suspicious about it already, I always put him to sleep mode whenever Noiz's mother is around. I also put him to sleep mode whenever I talk to Granny about this. I know that Ren is always there to help me but I couldn't help but feel that I need to fight this battle alone, I don't want him to worry as well._

_The last time I remembered her coming to our house was when Noiz went to a two-weeks worth of conference( chapter 10)_

_It was the usual but this time the money she gave me was more than I could ever think of._

_"Here's 20 million euros, I'm sure that this is enough to someone like you."_

_"I told you already no matter how much money you will give me, I still have no plans to break up with him." I calmly declined her offer._

_I could she that she was angry, she was growing impatient towards me. I think that she finds it hard to believe that someone would decline such a huge amount of money over something like love. "You whore!" she stood up and slapped me in the face. "I'm giving you enough money to live like a pig in you country and yet you still deny it?! What did Wilhelm do to you to deny this much money anyway?!"_

_"You won't understand it." I told her firmly as I look directly into her eyes._

_"What do you mean by that huh? What I don't understand?! " she then continue to hit my face, actually it didn't hurt that much but the more she hit the more bruised my face becomes._

_"That's because you never loved him! How could you understand something like that when you, yourself didn't love him. I love all of him even the parts of him that you refer to as a disgrace. To me he is someone that can't be broke up by money so easily." I broke my composure and shouted what I really felt toward him. I really love Noiz, I really do and I don't want anything bad to happened to us, but it's impossible.... it really is.... I just want us to live happily but is it really impossible?....._

_It seems that she felt offended on what I said and punched me really hard, I don't actually really remember what had happened next but I know that she still continue to threaten me, I was always afraid whenever she comes to our apartment and I... I couldn't help but feel broken everytime she questions my love for her son._

_Why?_

_Is it really bad to love someone?_

_Is it unnatural for someone to fight for their love?_

_Please tell me.... someone.....anyone...._

_Am I not allowed to love Noiz?_

-End of Chapter 14- 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really don't know if that is how a repressed memory resurfaces or what you feel about it, so please excuse me if I use inaccurate words.  
> and please feel free to leave comments or kudos :D


	15. Bis Dahin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoba and Noiz has come to a conclusion on how they will over come their obstacles in life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sorry for the late update but I manage to finish this fic :D I hope you guys like the ending xD  
> and as usual thank you for the support, kudos and comments :)

Chapter 15: "Bis Dahin"

"Theo!" Noiz immediately called out as he bust through the hospital door. "How's Aoba?!"

"Bruder!" Theo called back, he saw that his older brother was panting very hard. It seems that he run all the way to the hospital when he heard that Aoba was brought to the hospital. "Calm down for a while, I will tell you everything once you've taken your breath."

"There's no time for that! I need to know if Aoba's alright." Noiz protested and tried to shove Theo off.

Theo sighed and said, "Don't worry bruder, Aoba-san's alright. He's actually sleeping right now, so it won't be good if you try to barge in so suddenly."

"I see..." Noiz finally caught up with his breathe and sat down. "I was so worried."

"Aoba-san's grandmother and friend already came here and is currently talking to the doctors about his condition. We could ask them later about it." Theo added and sat down beside Noiz.

"Wait, Koujaku's here as well? How the hell did he came ahead of me? I run ahead of him. When did he arrive here?!"

"A few minutes earlier than you. He told me that once you heard about the news, you immediately run straight to the hospital. I guess he took a short cut compared to you."

"Ohhh..." Noiz just realized that acting on impulse was a bit out of his character and realized that Koujaku was better than him in handling the news. So he tried to change the topic. "How did it happened anyway?"

"Well... we were suppose to celebrate your engagement by buying a cake but we ended up in a fight with women and then... I don't know what happened next..." Theo paused and lowered his head. "It was all my fault. If only I didn't forced Aoba-san to meet with me today, none of this would have happened."

Noiz slowly patted Theo's head.

"Burder..."

"Don't blame yourself Theo, it's not your fault. It would have happened one of these days anyway and... I'm at least glad that you were beside Aoba when it happened." Noiz let out a small smile.

When Theo saw this, he couldn't help but smile as well.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" a scream startled the two brothers.

"That voice...." Noiz noted.

"It came from Aoba-san's room!" Theo exclaimed and went to Aoba's room. When they got there, they saw Koujaku, a doctor and Tae. They noticed that the doctor was trying to explain things to the two of them. Noiz, really looked at how Aoba's grandmother face was when the doctor explained to her what had happened, she was really devastated and sad.

"Excuse me but would you mind telling me what had happened here?" Noiz suddenly asked.

"So you finally made it brat." Koujaku commented.

"Shut it." Noiz was serious and doesn't want to joke around. "How is Aoba?"

"You must be his partner, both Seragaki-san (the doctor refers to Tae) and his friend told me everything. Come to my office, I need to tell you something important." the doctor pointed out. "You too." the doctor added and looked at Theo.

The three of them went straight to the doctor's office and sat down. 

"What happened earlier anyway? I heard Aoba screaming." Noiz asked.

"It was because he saw his grandmother." The doctor answered.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, from what I learned. It seems that Mr. Seragaki had an incident few months back. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"And because of it, he lost his memory about a year and a half. But then it was later revealed that his amnesia wasn't caused by the incident but because he want to forget about it. The selective amnesia or rather the repressed memory is something that is common among people, I am sure there are moments that you want to forget right? Possessing repressed memory is not that bad, it can help the brain to relax or feel comfortable, that's why it belongs to one of the defense mechanism of the mind. But when it resurfaces, it can cause really bad memories. And... well, this might be a bit tough to say but I would suggest you two to not see him in a while."

"Huh?!" the two brothers exclaimed in astonishment.

"Why?" Theo asked.

"The real reason for his repressed memories was because of the abuses he got from your family, is that correct?"

"Ye...yes..." Noiz replied reluctantly.

The doctor sighed and said, "You know, when he was bought here. He kept on screaming and trying to get away whenever he was touched or approached by women. I believe that whenever he is being approached by women, the times he was abused resurfaces that's why he is trying to reject them just to protect himself. Even his grandmother tried to approach him but he rejected her."

"Then why aren't we allowed to see him? We're not women." Theo couldn't help but ask.

"You got a point there but you have to remember that you are her children and that there's a possibility that his memories might resurface when he will see you two since you two could resemble your mother."

"This is nonsense!" Theo slammed his hand on the table. "Right bruder?" Theo looked at his brother. When Theo saw that Noiz was actually thinking what the doctor had told him. "Bruder, don't tell me...."

Noiz closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I know that this would happened but I didn't expect it to be now. I know that you're only doing your job and that you're only looking out for his health....." 

"So you understand what this means right?" the doctor clarified.

"Yes."

"The treatment for this might take longer than we expected but if Mr. Seragaki will be willing to cooperate with us, then it won't be a problem for you two to get back together."

"I understand. I've already asked different people about this case and I'm willing to do my part. If that's what you think it's for the best, then I will follow what you say. You're the doctor here not me." 

"Thank you for understanding."

"Bruder...." 

Noiz stood up, Theo followed him. Bowed down and left the office.

"Bruder!" Theo called out Noiz. But Noiz didn't turned back and continued to walk. "Bruder!" and again Noiz didn't looked back. Theo felt really stressed about this and finally shouted, "NOIZ!"

This time, Noiz looked back at him. "What is it?"

"Are you really going to leave Aoba-san?" Theo asked. "How could you do that in the time he needs you the most?!"

"This is not only about me, Theo. You should understand that it is also about our family and Aoba. Are you really going to gumble Aoba's health with us staying here? And besides, we still have to continue to our work in Germany, we can't stay here forever so it's only convienient." Noiz reasoned out.

"But, what will happened to Aoba-san?!" 

"He will be alright, I know that he will be able to get through this. He is a strong person after all." Noiz looked at th window with a smile. That time, Theo realized that Noiz is really being torn apart. He knew that his brother want to stay with Aoba but he can't, Noiz is compramising what is best for the both of them.

"I'm sorry...." Theo apologized.

"Don't worry about it." Noiz responded and left.

\---

A few hours later, Aoba was asleep due to sedatives. Noiz took this as an oppurtonity to sneak in and see him.

"Aoba..." Noiz called out but Aoba of course didn't respond since he's was sedated.

Noiz slowly walked closer to Aoba, touched his face and tears start to fall from Noiz's eyes.

"I'm sorry but this is good bye for now." Noiz brushed off Aoba's forehead and kissed it. " _Bis Dahin.... Meine Liebe..._ " After that Noiz left his room.

_ That's weird, why doI hear Noiz's voice?  Why does his voice sound sad? What's happening? _

_ \--- _

Aoba slowly opened his eyes. "No...Noiz...?..."

"You're finally awake!" Koujaku exclaimed with a joyful tone.

"What happened?" Aoba shook of his head and tried to remember. But he feels a strong headache so he stopped.

"Don't try to move around too much. There are still heavy traces of sedatives left in your body." Koujaku tried to make Aoba comfortable.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Around 10 hours, I think. We've been worried about you, you know. Me and your grandmother."

"Gran..." when he tried to think about his grandmother, a flashback of Noiz's mother appeared which caused him to scream. "AHHHHH!!!!!!"

"Aoba!" Koujaku was shaken. "Calm down!" he tries his best to stop Aoba from panicking. "Doctor! Where the hell's the doctor!" he tried to call for help.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" 

The doctor immediately came to Koujaku's help and tried to calm Aoba down. They held him down and injected him some trnquilizers.

Aoba was able to calm down and slowly went back to sleep.

"Didn't I told you not to mention anything that could resurface his memory!" the doctor scolded Koujaku.

"I'm sorry, I just got carried away." Koujaku tried to defend himself.

I could hear people talking but I can't understand what they're saying. My mind... it's starting to drift apart....

_Noiz...._

\---

"So Aoba how do you feel?" The doctor asked and prepares his pen and paper.

"I'm feeling better actually." Aoba answered.

"How about your interaction with your grandmother?"

"It's..." he paused. "It's been good... my grandmother is actually very considerate, she always try not to push myself or herself to get better so quickly."

"I see, that's good." the doctor nodded and took down notes. "How about seeing women on the streets? Have you tryied interacting with them?"

"Yes... but whenever I tried to approach them I always feel fear and anxiety. But I try to muster up my courage in order to get better."

"Aoba." the doctor called out. "You don't need to push yourself too hard, ok? I know that you want to meet up with your lover so badly but you're still recovering, this is not something we could rush, you understand?"

"Yes, but it's just that... it's been a few months already. I really want to see Noiz again."

"I know that it's hard to be away from someone you love but please bear with it for a while. Everything will get better soon."

"Alright then..." Aoba took his jacket and bag. "Thank you Doctor." He then left.

As he was walking down the streets, he couldn't help but think about Noiz. They haven't seen each other for a few months now and it hurts the two of them so badly. There are times that Aoba tried to call Noiz but Noiz ended up rejecting the call. Aoba knows that Noiz is doing it for his own good but the thought of not being able to be with the one you love really hurts both of them. Sometimes

Noiz would intend to accept Aoba's calls just to hear his voice but he never talk to him. Noiz was afraid that he might hurt Aoba even more than he is already feeling.

_Noiz....._

_What you've done for me, can't be paid off so easily_

_You give me hope that I will get better_

_You opened my eyes on just how much you love and care for me despite of all of these_

_You showed me that the two of us are always together with one another even though we're apart_

_You taught me to be patient and understanding, that's why I won't take this for granted_

_I will get better for sure_

_I will come and find you_

_For you have taught me that time is not a hindrance but a test to prove our love for each other._

_I know that there are twists and turns in our story but that's what makes our love stronger, the struggles that we've encountered, overcame and going to face are nothing because whenever we are together, there's nothing that we can't accomplish._

_You don't have to be alone on this one or in anything else, I will always be here for you from now on_

_.... so please....._

\----

"The international flight from Japan to Germany has now landed. Thank you for choosing our airline." the flight stewardess announced as she greets her passengers farewell.

"Thank you." Aoba appreciated and handed out his ticket to be verified.

"Have a safe trip."

"I will." 

Aoba picked up his luggage and woke up Ren.

"Are you ready Aoba?" Ren asked.

"Yeah." Aoba answered with a smile. " _Noiz, I'm finally here. Please wait for me._ " he thought and walked outside the airport.

-THE END-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally it's done :D I hope you guys liked the ending ＼＼\\(۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶//／／  
> and as a thank you to all of you wonderful people please check this:  
> http://forgotusernamewinkwink.tumblr.com/post/122849136540/es-tut-mir-leid-aber-das-ist-auf-wiedersehen-bis


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